Touch
by Barely Berries
Summary: Naruto struggles to enjoy life along side her red haired boyfriend, who is the only one who can touch her. Ratings may go up. GaaraxFem!Naru Currently on hold. Will be rewritten and then continued. :)
1. 君必要しない

_Rewrite: DD/MM/YY-30/05/17 01:44  
_

* * *

 **『君必要しない』**

"Ssh... Maybe she's cursed."

"Didn't you hear? Her mother died giving birth to her, and that _man_ killed her father. None of her relatives wanted to take such an ugly baby in... She's lived here ever since."

"Ahh, how terrifying..."

Uzumaki Naruto pays them no mind.

She hears this kind of chatter all the time. It was a lot easier to ignore it than to put up with them. After all, it was just another problem on her very long list of things that troubled her.

A lot has changed in the past few years. She's moved out of the orphanage and was even lucky enough to be taken into foster care by a man with stern eyes and very long hair; he's an Uchiha, an extremely rich family that was very close knit.

Naruto was kind of afraid to talk to him, but she was afraid to talk to anyone at this point so it was irrelevant. Though, he didn't talk to her much either. He was a quiet person. Which is good.

She wonders if things are supposed to be different now. The family who is taking care of her until the adoption process runs through isn't a very big one, but it's more than Naruto's ever had.

There's a mother and a father and two boys who are older than her, but she still feels lonely and out of place. Maybe those things were just a part of her now. What does it feel like to belong?

Her crystal blue eyes curiously stare across the room and then straight out the window; the bedroom she's sleeping in at the moment is a shared one, the child who shared the room with her was very close to her age. He's a year older than her, but he didn't seem to mind sharing the bed.

Or if he did, she really didn't notice.

She hasn't been paying much attention.

He peaks out at her, annoyed by her constant staring. Mother hasn't been happy with her recently, as she would much rather call the woman 'Mikoto-san' instead of anything else. They want her to feel like she's part of the family, but she refuses to use terms like mom or dad or even brother!

He narrows his eyes at her curled up form. Doesn't she want to be part of this family? If so, why doesn't she act like it? It was no wonder Mikoto got so upset with her. It didn't matter how little she was.

Naruto keeps to herself a lot.

In the morning Mikoto tries to get her to say 'Mommy.' Mikoto had always wanted a daughter, but Naruto acted so distant that it felt like she wasn't even trying sometimes. Her oldest child, Itachi, is in middle school.

He eats fast and kisses his mother goodbye before he leaves, running off with his friends from school without another word. The youngest son says 'Thank you, mom.' before he eats. Sasuke eats a lot slower than Itachi did, savoring his food since he's not in a rush.

Naruto keeps quiet as she eats, picking and choosing at certain parts of the breakfast and then finally pushing the plate away once it's half empty. She'll come back to it later when she's the only one in the room.

Mikoto sighs. "Are you going to eat it later again?"

The blonde girl nods, watching silently as the woman covers it with plastic and puts it away for later. "It's been a week, Naruto. This is your family now, you need to start addressing us as such."

Naruto doesn't reply, and instead stares at the floorboards. It's almost as if she's zoning out, but really she's just trying ignore them. Sasuke stands and brings his dish to his mother, holding it out for her to take it and kissing her much like Itachi did. Yes, if only Naruto acted like Sasuke.

The woman sighs, putting a hand on her six year old's head. "Thank you Sasuke."

Mikoto works at home. She cares for her children, cleans, and cooks for her family. While her oldest son is away at school and her husband is away at work, she has plenty of time to take Sasuke out or tidy up the house. Naruto prefers to go off by herself.

People talk about her a lot.

The people in the Uchiha compound, that is.

They talk about how misbehaved she is, where they think she came from, or even how she's cursed. Rumors spread and so everyone avoids her like the plaque.

Naruto tells herself that she couldn't care less.

She doesn't need friends.

Or family.

She has herself, and that's all she needs.

Somehow sitting by the river all day and throwing rocks to make the surface ripple has become a habit. Naruto will sit outside all day, watching the clouds or throwing rocks. The only thing that reminds her to come home is Itachi, who walks past her on his way home from school.

He'll stand at the top of the hill with his blue book bag slung over his shoulder as he calls out to her. "Naruto," He'll use her name; he won't call her sister or brother or anything like that, and for that she is grateful. "It's time to come home."

Her stagnant blue eyes will shift towards him and hold their gaze for a minute, almost as if they expect him to walk away and leave her behind. He's used to her behavior. He sighs and holds a hand out to her, waiting patiently for her to take it.

"Aren't you coming?"

The four year old runs up the hill and takes his hand. It's warm. Naruto always enjoys the moments she spends with the quiet older brother. When they get home, Naruto will let go of his hand and follow five paces behind him to avoid questions.

"Do you not like mother?"

"She loves you very much."

Naruto doesn't reply. She doesn't understand why he's still talking to her; isn't it obvious? She's not a part of the family yet, she's still just a foster child. The chances of adoption are amazingly low, so it will only hurt more if Naruto gets attached and then torn away and given to another family.

Calling Mikoto mom, Itachi and Sasuke brother, or even calling Fugaku dad; would have to wait until she's been officially adopted.

When they reach the house, the oldest holds the door open for her while she ducks underneath his arm to get inside. They both take their shoes off, but only one of them says, 'I'm home.'

Naruto heads straight for her room while Itachi goes to tell his mother about his day.

Tomorrow, the day repeats itself.

Naruto only eats half of her breakfast before escaping, Mikoto yells at her for not treating them ltachi dismisses himself as fast as possible. Once again, Naruto heads for the lake as soon as she can.

It's clear the woman is getting tired of her.

It's not hard to see, or hear for that matter. Naruto can hear it in her voice when she's talking on the phone to her husband; Mikoto complains about things that she clearly doesn't understand. _"She won't even call me 'mom.' It's awful._

"You just have to keep trying, it's only been a month. She's only four."

 _"I don't even think she sees us as a family. It's awful! She'll only eat a small portion of her meal because she doesn't like eating with us!_ " Mikoto will sigh and run a very frustrated hand through her hair and say something like; _"You just don't understand. You're never home."_

"I'm sure things will get better."

He's wrong.

Naruto's been having problems sleeping with Sasuke. He tells her she can't sleep with him until she calls him her brother, so Naruto packs up and leaves. She finds her favorite corner in the living room, and stays there until morning.

Mikoto makes breakfast and Itachi is the first to go, like always. Sasuke pushes his food around with his fork and Mikoto doesn't smile or proclaim her love for them all today.

The day only gets worse.

"I'm not your daughter!" These are the first words that escape Naruto's mouth when Mikoto tells Sasuke to ask Naruto if she wanted to join them at the park today. Sasuke had started to cry, and Mikoto had slapped the child straight across the ace.

Naruto holds her stinging cheek, but doesn't dare cry.

Sasuke looks down on her. "If you don't wanna be my sister than you should leave!"

Mikoto picks her red-faced son up and leaves the room in a hurry, cellphone in hand and number already dialed.

Fugaku is on the other end.

"Isn't this enough?" She asks her husband, still holding her youngest son tight to her chest. Right now she could care less that Naruto was clearly listening to them from the other room. "Just how much do I have to put up with?"

"I know we're doing this for Minato and Kushina, but it's just... She's just so awful."

"We need to take her back, I can't do this anymore. She doesn't want to be a part of her family, so we should just take her back."

Naruto puts her hands over her ears and tries to block out the noise.

Why is this her fault?

After only spending five months with the Uchiha family, they no longer desire to foster her. Though Naruto has to admit, it's kind of a relief.

Maybe she didn't need parents.

 _"She's back already. Not even half a year and we're stuck with her again."_

 _"Wouldn't it be great if something happened to her? She wouldn't be our problem anymore."_

 _"Why doesn't she just disappear?"_

Naruto pulls her blanket over her head.

Yeah, she doesn't need anyone.

 **『** **君必要しない I Don't Need Anyone** **』**


	2. 眠りたい

_Updated 30/05/17 12:00_

 **『眠りたい』**

At six years old, Naruto likes to keep to herself.

Things are better that way. Staying out of everything is how she stays happy; keeping to herself means less people to yell at her, and less ways to get hurt.

She's quiet today too. Even now as she sits by the river bed all by her self, letting her feet dangle over the dock and just barely letting her toes touch the cold water. The fish nip at her toes and bring a small smile to her face, it kind of tickles.

Normally she preferred to avoid the Uchiha's. The large river she loved so much didn't exactly belong to them, but it was very close to the compound itself. It was probably her favorite spot in the whole world, actually.

That was an understatement.

She enjoyed the silence, sure. It was peaceful here, and the trees didn't get in the way of the sun either. Sometimes, she would watch the fish swim around and wonder what it was like to be a fish.

She puts both of her hands on her cheeks to make a fish-face, and wonders if they understand her. Then, when she gives up on communication, she skips rocks across the lake and watches them fly.

Anyway.

Naruto didn't really like the uniform her new school was making them all wear. It was a baby blue, puffy-dress thing that stopped just above her knees and left enough room for black shorts that stopped mid-thigh level.

Their hats indicated what year they were in. Red for six months, yellow for one year, and green for those going to elementary school. No matter how many times she told the teacher her favorite color was orange, they just wouldn't listen!

Naruto grins as she remembers the one time she showed up to school wearing bright orange shorts instead of the normal black ones, the teacher had gotten really angry at her that day. She didn't care.

Next year in elementary school, Naruto hopes that they won't have to wear uniforms anymore. Or, if they do, Naruto's definitely coloring hers orange. Bright neon orange. Maybe then she'd glow in the dark.

Speaking of school... She looks over her shoulder at exactly four 'o clock just in time to see the older of the two Uchiha brothers walking home from school. Their gazes meet for no longer than a second; he waves, but she breaks contact.

Blue eyes stare at the river once more.

It's been nearly two years now, she's a big girl now.

And she's got the scars to prove it.

She traces the whisker marks on her face and suddenly, he's gone. Naruto stands up and wanders off. She doesn't come back to the river the next day.

Uzumaki Naruto doesn't have any friends.

Well, she has plenty of imaginary ones. Just none that she could physically interact with. Other than that, her life was the same inside and outside of school. Quiet and lonely, but acceptable. She could live with it.

All of the other children leave her alone in class; no one talks to her, so she spends her time drawing meaningless doodles in her notebook as she waits for the teachers to return.

For some reason today, Sasuke keeps glaring at her. He's sitting right behind her and she can feel his eyes on her back; the hairs on the back of her neck stand tall. It's kind of annoying how they're all assigned seats; Naruto decides she doesn't like sitting in alphabetical order.

Actually, she doesn't like sitting in the classroom at all. She would much rather prefer if she were allowed to sit in the back corner and watch everyone without being bothered, but she already knows what the answer is. Therefore, she doesn't ask.

"It's very sunny outside today! We're going to go outside!" The teacher announces brightly; the smile on her face and the excitement in her voice has nearly all the children throwing their hands up in the air excitedly.

Well, except for Naruto. She knows full well that whenever they go outside they always end up having to- "Everyone find a buddy!"

Naruto already knows that no one wants to be her buddy, so she doesn't bother looking up from her book. It's okay, she doesn't want to be partners with any of them. They're all mean and stuck up and selfish. Why won't the teacher just let her play on her own? That's normally what happens anyway.

"Alright Naruto, you can be my buddy today. How does that sound?"

Naruto doesn't reply. Instead she shoves her drawing material into it's bag and leaves it on her desk, following the teacher as she leads them outside.

If the woman was right about one thing, it's about how nice the weather is. The sun feels warm as it hits her skin, a slight breeze plays with her hair, and the sky has perfectly white clouds floating bye. It's perfect.

All of the other kids go running off to play. Naruto is perfectly content with lying against the tree and waiting for the teacher to leave, otherwise she'll be yelled at for trying to climb it again.

Surly enough, the teacher wonders off to watch some of the more active kids. Naruto reaches for the first branch and tries to pull herself up, it's a success. She cheers and hangs upside down like a monkey, the small tree branch supports her weight with ease.

She looks up the tree a bit further, maybe she should go higher. A grin plays on her lips as she drops her arms out from underneath her and lets her legs hold her up.

Things were going great too, but then a ball hits her in the face hard enough to give her a bloody nose.

Naruto drops, landing on her back and already feeling the tears welling up in her eyes as she moves an arm over her face to stop the blood from coming out.

"Sasuke-kun! You hit the demon!"

"Wahhh! Scary!"

"What if she curses us!?"

"Run!"

Someone puts a hand on the top of her head but she doesn't freak out; she doesn't tremble, cry, or scream out 'Get away, please, don't touch me!' Their touch is soft and warm and a bit awkward as it pats her head a couple of times.

"There there... It's okay."

She moves her arm away from her face and opens her eyes. There's a boy crouched in front of her with an arm extended as if to allow his hand to comfortably rest on her head. She looks up at him blank, surprised, and a bit confused. There's worry in his eyes instead of hate, and his touch is kind. Like Itachi's.

There's something about him that makes her feel safe. Maybe it's the way he touches her; how the very tips of his fingers slide and become his palms, or maybe it's how she gets lost in his blue-green eyes. She doesn't flinch when he touches her.

"Um, are you okay?"

The place where his eyebrows should have been furrow, and he removes his hand from her head slowly. Unsure of what to say or how to reply, she just nods. "That's good!" He beams slightly. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah..." She pauses, voice nearly caught in the back of her throat. The other children continue their game as if nothing had happened, and Naruto feels guilty for keeping him. "I'm okay, so you don't have to play with me. The other kids will think you're cursed too."

"They don't like me." He replies a bit too quickly; Naruto's reminded of herself, because surly the other kids don't like her either. The red headed boy fiddles with his fingers slightly. "Cause I look scary."

"You don't look scary." Naruto urges, shaking her head to disagree with his statement. If anyone looked scary it was her; just who had whisker marks on their face? She was scared to look in the mirror sometimes. "You look... Very kind."

The boy smiles, making an expression so happy that she can't help but smile back at him. "I'm Gaara." He holds out his hand and she takes it, though a bit shyly.

"I'm Naruto."

A beautiful friendship starts.

 _Ten years pass._

Sixteen year old Uzumaki Naruto smacks her boyfriend across the face accidentally as she rolls over in bed; she's stretched out messily, almost taking up the whole bed. The red headed teenager just stares up at the ceiling with a deadpan expression; while one of her long, tan arms finds a resting spot on his face.

The alarm says seven forty five; school starts at eight, but neither of them show any intent on getting up anytime soon. Monday's are like that. The bed is too soft, the blankets are too warm, and it's oddly cold outside.

Gaara nudges Naruto in the ribs with his elbow, and rubs them until her face scrunches up uncomfortably. "Naru, we're going to be late for school."

She rolls around again, this time her arms wrap around his midsection and she buries her face in his chest. "Don't wanna..." She moans; the bed is far too warm and she's far too comfortable to leave right now, she feels offended that he would even dare to consider the idea. Just who did he think she was?

Surly, not Uzumaki Naruto.

Uzuamki Naruto liked to sleep.

"It's are first day at this school, isn't it? Don't you want to make a good impression?"

Naruto shakes her head. "Noooo... Let's sleep in and then let's have pancakes for breakfast."

"Chocolate chip?" He asks, curling an arm around her head and kissing her cheek. She lets out a hum of approval; then he lets her go and gets out of bed, leaving her without her favorite teddy bear in a bed that is much colder without him.

He rakes a hand through his messy red hair; he raises his arms up and Naruto watches every muscle in his bare back stretch out, his naval shows but his loose black pajama pants cover everything else. She pouts. "No good morning kiss?"

He scratches his neck. "Get ready for school, then we'll see what happens."

The blonde flushes a bright scarlet and pushes her boyfriend towards the door. "Fine then! Geez!" He's out the door almost instantly and Naruto pretends not to hear the light chuckles leaving his mouth as he exits, turning on the blinding bright lights in the process.

There are two school uniforms laid out on the dresser; one belonging to a female, and the other a male. She picks up the one with the short skirt and quickly puts it on; if she misses a button or too, it doesn't really matter.

They're going to be late, after all.

Looking at her uniform in the mirror with satisfaction, she goes to brush her teeth and wash her face while trying to ignore the sweet smell of pancakes cooking in the next room over.

If Naruto steals a pancake from the large stack Gaara was currently piling up, then he doesn't notice or he doesn't care enough to comment on it. "Do we really have to go to school today?" She whines; Gaara rolls his eyes as he exits the room, clearly ignoring her efforts to convince him to stay home today.

"We're going." He leaves the room and comes back barely five minutes later; this time with his school uniform on, brushed teeth, and a freshly washed face. He's lucky, Naruto thinks. His hair is short enough that he can just wake up and go, but then again other times it looks messy no matter what he does.

Messy in a sexy way, of course.

Then there's the way her hair looks as if a bird had tried to make a nest on top of her head, and she chooses not to ask what he thought of her bed head. "Shit, Naruto, it's time to go."

She nearly inhales the last few pancakes sitting on her plate; not even bothering to wipe the remnants off of her face before running to the refrigerator to get the lunch boxes she had made last night. Gaara grabs their bags and drags her out the apartment door, locks it behind him, and grabs her hand.

"Let's run," He says.

Her eyes flash with excitement because she hears, 'Let's race.'

If the two of them look absolutely stupid running through the school gates that morning, then it doesn't matter. Because they're doing it together, and they couldn't care less.

 **oOo**

"Isn't Gaara like, kinda hot now?" Yamanaka Ino hums excitedly as she stares at him with sparkling eyes; the teacher was currently scolding them for being late, but neither of them seemed to care in the least bit.

Beside her, Haruno Sakura rolls her eyes. "Sasuke's hotter."

"Sasuke's a fuckboy."

"Okay everyone calm down!" The white haired teacher claps his hands, a bored look in his eyes as he brings everyone's attention to their two new classmates. "We have two new students joining us today; please, introduce yourselves. Tell us your likes, dislikes, and hobbies."

Gaara looks down to Naruto, as if urging her to go first. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto! But I don't really care what you call me. Um, I like sleeping! A lot, actually. Yknow, ramen's the shit! It's so good! Um...I don't like it when people touch me, so don't. As for hobbies..." She looks up to the redheaded boy in question. "Do I have hobbies?"

"You run a lot, and you cook sometimes. You're always drawing too."

"I love to draw! " She grins, proud of her own answer. The teacher just sweat drops and looks to Gaara for his introduction.

"My name is Sabaku Gaara. It's nice to meet you. I don't care to share my likes and dislikes. As for my hobbies... I enjoy cooking."

"Ehh, no fair! I said my likes and dislikes!"

"That's fine."

Once more, their new teacher clears his throat, and points to the two open seats in the middle of the class to the far right. A very familiar Uchiha sits in one of the seats behind them, and Gaara makes an effort to sit in the seat in front of him. For that, Naruto is thankful.

They sit down and the class goes on almost normally; except Sasuke just wont stop starting at Naruto, and it's pissing Gaara off. It looked as if Sasuke had a lot of inner monologue going on through his head, none of which Gaara cared for. All of which he planned on keeping Naruto far away from.

Next to Sasuke; Sakura and Ino seemed to be having a conversation about which one of them was more attractive. Gaara doesn't linger on their pointless chatter and instead turns his attention to the white haired teacher, who has been closer and closer to the sleeping blonde by second.

He moves as if to somehow wake up the blonde, but Gaara grabs his hand before he can move in any further. "If you so much as try to touch her," He glares and tightens his grip harshly enough to leave a red mark ."I'll break it."

Kakashi pulls his hand back as quick as possible; it takes him a second to regain his posture. He closes the history book. "Lunch break."

There's still ten minutes until the bell is supposed to go off, but no one complains. Sakura passes by Naruto and purposely bumps into her desk; she wakes up looking a bit startled, but it wears away fast when Gaara puts a hand on her back. He leads her out of the room, and Sasuke doesn't get the chance to follow.

"What do you want, Sakura?"

The pink haired girl blushes, trying to push forward the little cleavage she had to make herself look more attractive. "I was wondering if you wanted to eat lunch together again?" She leans forward to whisper in his ear seductively, but he replies with an utterly repulsed expression. "Just you and me?"

"Move."

She crosses her arms over her chest, looking a bit upset about the way he was shoving her aside for some new girl who looked as if she already had a boyfriend. "Why are you so interested in that girl? There's nothing good about her!"

That's a lie, Sasuke thinks. Her boobs are bigger, her hips are wider, her face is prettier, her hair is foreign, and she resembles a model with her long body and slim frame. In addition to that, she's one of the first girls who hasn't fallen in love with him at first sight.

It might be fun, getting her to fall in love with him.

He grins, shoving past Sakura and exiting the classroom.

 **oOo**

"Do you want to join a club?"

Naruto gives Gaara a look that questions what in his right mind, believed that she would want to join a club. "Do you want to join a club?" Gaara shakes his head, clearly against the idea. "Good. Me either."

"There's more time to be lazy when we're not in a club, right?"

Naruto grins. "Unless they make a club for being lazy, but that sounds like too much work."

"Just talking about it is too much work."

He gives a tired sigh and rests his head on her lap; the bags underneath his eyes look a bit worse than usual today, but somehow hers are non existent. "It's your fault that I'm tired."

"Hey! That's offensive. I told you that we could have slept in, but you didn't wanna." She teases; Gaara does nothing but roll his eyes and make himself more comfortable in her lap. It's only been a couple seconds since he laid down, but he already looks like he's about to fall asleep.

"You're the one who wants to play all night." He closes his eyes. "Then you pass out and somehow expect me to do the same..."

She says something that Gaara's too zoned out to understand. At his point Naruto's voice is nothing but a soft hymn to Gaara; his head rests on her lap while her hands rake through his hair, the boy gives nothing but a grunt of approval. His half lidded eyes struggle to stay open, but fail in the long run.

She bends over and kisses his forehead, continues to carefully comb through his hair, and she starts to hum a familiar song that neither on of them know the name of. "I love you," His eyes roll back into his head and his breathing becomes even.

Gaara wakes up to the sound of the final bell ringing, letting the students know that the day has ended and it's time to go home. The look on his face is funny, to Naruto, because he had told her to wake him before third period and instead she had just let him sleep.

She gives a grin. "Revenge!" She declares proudly, at least until he goes ahead and says that they're getting up on time tomorrow.

"Fine,"

She's not happy about it.

 **『眠りたい‐** **I want to sleep** **』**

 **A/N: Thank for reading, and an extra special thanks for these reviewers**

 **spikemuppe1, Not Stale Bread, jinchurikii029, Threws, and JJ**

 **If there's any constructive criticism you would like to mention, please leave it in a review or message me so I can make this story better :)**

 **Nothing to see here...**

 **Bye.**

 **~Berries**


	3. 君は一人じゃない

_Updated 30/05/17 12:50 Notes - Merged chapter 3+4._

 **『君は一人じゃない』**

It was insanely hard to get Naruto alone by herself.

For the most part that tall kid, Gaara, was by her side at least 99.9 percent of the day. The only time that they were away from each other, was when she had to go change in the locker room or one of them had to go to the bathroom. Either or, it was hard. It took Sasuke a whole week to find the perfect opportunity.

Naruto's almost a completely different person when Gaara's not around. She's shy; she keeps her head down and gets so quiet that it's almost as if her personality has done a whole 180. She's just come out of the female locker room after gym class; she smells like vanilla and honey, and her hair is still a bit wet from the shower.

She's not suspecting it in the slightest, to be shoved against the all roughly and two hands to block her only way of getting out of a situation she didn't want to be in. Her eyes go wide she almost freezes completely; when she starts trembling, it's so little that he doesn't even notice.

"Uzumaki," He whispers by her ear, getting uncomfortably close to her. "It seems that we haven't gotten the chance to talk alone since you got here. I'm sure you've seen me around though, haven't you?"

"D-Don't to-touch me!" She stutters; her blue orbs pool with tears that threaten to go running down her face. Her body is unusually stiff and she won't stop shaking, but for some reason Sasuke still won't take his hand off of her chin. It almost looks like he's going to try and kiss her and god, no, she doesn't want that.

She wants him to let go and go far far away and never come back.

Naruto closes her eyes.

A hand is roughly placed on Sasuke's shoulder; the Uchiha turns around just in time to make eye contact with angry turquoise eyes that promise death and pain and everything in between.

For the first time in Sasuke's life, he feels terrified.

Without the slightest warning, Gaara throws Sasuke into the wall right across of them. Sasuke struggles to get up but it's all for naught, as the moment he does Gaara puts a hand on his neck and holds him against the wall. He feels nothing but white hot pain and weakness, because no matter what he does to try and escape Gaara's grip the boy just won't let go.

He claws at the hands on his neck, but to no avail. "You're trash, Uchiha. You do nothing but use people until your tired of them; just how many girls have you dated? How many have you slept with? You're nothing but a used up whore, and an idiot if you ever thought you even had the slightest chance with Naruto."

He drops the Uchiha to the ground and shorter boy's knees buckle the moment they try to support his weight; Sasuke's head knocks into the wall once more, and his already busted nose bleeds even harder.

Gaara pulls Naruto up easily; she clings onto him as tightly as her thin arms will allow, moving alongside him as he starts to walk away from the wounded Uchiha. "You're okay now, Naruto." He pulls her even closer and she just whispers her thanks into his side, but that doesn't mean it goes unheard.

"Don't worry." He gives a reassuring smile. "I was only lending you a hand.

Sasuke stares after them and spits out a wad of blood, clearly unhappy with the way things turned out. He wipes the red substance off of his face and tries to compose himself, but fails. He's barely able to stand from the shock.

He grits his teeth.

"Fuck."

 **oOo**

"He attacked me!" Uchiha Sasuke snarls; the principal of the school, just gives him an exasperated look. She would much rather be doing paperwork than listening to him whine. She picks up the cup of tea her assistant had left her with instead of booze, and chugs it down in attempt to cool her nerves.

Her fingers expertly navigate across the mess that is her desk; opens her laptop, and loads the security footage. "We have security cameras around here, and I'm sorry to say that they all work." She turns her computer towards him and the video starts.

It caught everything. The way he followed Naruto to the female locker room and waited outside the door for ten minutes until she came out, the way he pushed her against the wall and put his hands on her, and the way she had started to cry and tremble and beg to be let go.

All of which was evidence that could be used against him. Not that he cared, of course. His family was rich. She pauses the footage and closes her laptop by pressing on top of he lid; her fingers fold calmly in front of her face. "Stalking, molestation, invasion of privacy..."

She counts off on three fingers; her bored brown eyes make him stiffen under their gaze. "You scared her and Mr Sabaku protected her out of self defense. Miss Uzumaki has haphephobia, Uchiha."

"Haphephobia?"

"The fear of being touched. By anyone. Whenever they do touch her, she has uncontrollable panic attacks that don't stop."

Sasuke narrows his eyes, clearly not believing her despite the obvious signals. "That's bullshit. Gaara is always, always touching Naruto."

"Gaara's the only exception. The two of them have known each other since they were five, she knows that she doesn't have to be afraid of him. You on the other hand, give her nothing but reason to run away from you screaming every time you come around."

The Uchiha frowns, very upset with the way the conversation was going. A girl has never given him so many problems before; there would be hell to pay if word of this got to his parents, especially his father.

"You're lucky, Uchiha. It doesn't look like they want to sue or anything. Don't go doing anything stupid. Your father is still getting the video, he'll decide what to do with you from there."

Sasuke stands with a huff, leaving much like child who had just been scolded by his mother. The door slams behind him but Tsunade just smiles, pulling out a special bottle of sake from underneath the desk.

"I've been waiting so long to put that kid in his place," She grins and pours herself a cup, only for her to then start chugging it straight from the bottle, and place the half full cup down on her desk.

She lets out a happy sigh.

"Tsunada-sama, are you drinking again?!"

 **oOo**

"I don't know what happened," Naruto breathes as she sits in the lap of her red headed boyfriend; her head rests against his chest and his chin on top of her head, his back leans against the wall to provide enough support for them both. "He was just there.

In the background, the television runs only to provide noise for the silence. Gaara remains silent and waits for her to continue; for these kinds of things, it was always good to go her pace instead of rushing it.

She runs a hand through her hair; just thinking about the incident was enough to cause a large amount of panic. "It was almost like he was just waiting for me outside the locker room, and he looked so proud of himself when he jumped me... His hands were so rough, Gaara."

"I know, Naru." He rubs her shoulders in a comforting manner, she melts into his touch and the sound of his heartbeat against her ear is very calming. "There was something more. What else happened?"

"I lived with him for about five months." She responds; Gaara's so surprised that he nearly stops. He pinches Naruto lightly as if to ask why she hasn't told him before. "I was really litle, like four, four and a half when I left."

"Oh," Gaara hums.

Naruto shrugs her shoulders; it's been more than ten years now, and the event of her living together with the Uchiha family was so short that she doesn't even count it as part of her life anymore. "I was only in foster care, so it wasn't like I was adopted or anything. I didn't want to call them mom or dad or anything like that, because there was always a chance that they wouldn't be able to adopt me. It would've hurt them and me."

"Is that what happened?"

"Yeah." She looks up at him and wraps her arms around his neck; she looks a lot better than she did when they were at school. Actully, she looked as if she's completely recovered from the incident all together. All it took was some TLC.

"Meeting you Gaara," She thinks in thought, blue eyes sparkling as she remembers the day someone touched her for the first time since the scar incident, and she made her first friend. All because a ball hit her in the face. "Was the best thing that could've ever happened to me."

Gaara's eyes brighten, he gives her a small seductive smile. "Likewise. Or it could've been running away with you. I'm not sure."

Naruto tackles him to the bed and straddles him from his waist; she puts both of her hands on either side of his face and bends down to kiss him. "What about D. All of the above?"

"It's gotta be D then."

Gaara feels uncomfortably hot with Naruto on his waist and her tongue in his mouth; he shifts accordingly with her body and when she breaks away panting, he makes the move to roll on top of her and pin her to the couch.

The blonde strains her neck as Gaara bites her ear hard enough to leave a mark; his tongue is warm and very wet as it trails from her ear, down her neck, and just above her chest. She gives a groan of disappointment when he has to take the time to undo the buttons on her school uniform.

His uniform comes off with ease; the useless garments are thrown to the ground, probably landing in a corner somewhere. With both uniforms discarded; Gaaa takes his time running his hands down every crease of her body, until Naruto pulls him down for another kiss.

Her bra unhooks from the front; even through the heat of the kiss, it's very easy to get off. Her B cup breasts and dusty brown nipples expose themselves, Gaara licks the little nub until it hardens. He squeezes and twists the other while a pair of long legs wrap around his waist.

A heat builds in her stomach and it doesn't go away; Gaara's administrations only increase this feeling. it's the same build up that it always is; Naruto gets so excited that it's hard to stop herself, but then Gaara stops and leaves her desiring more.

"Cmon~" She whines. "Don't stop now."

While her panties may be wet, there was a tent in his boxers that was painful. He didn't want to stop either, but he had promised himself. "I'm waiting until you're at least seventeen. I don't want to hurt you."

"But your seventeen, so it should be fine."

"I'm talking about you, Naruto. For now, that's as far as we're going to go."

She give a huff of disapproval but nonetheless, she respects his wishes. Her legs unwrap from around him and he wonders off into the bathroom to go take care of the painful tent in his pants; she herself goes off to clean herself up.

The bite marks on her neck and ears didn't look they were fading anytime soon; she smiles and wonders how the marks she left on Gaara were doing.

"Fuck, Naruto, you bit my neck to hard. It's bleeding."

Naruto grins, clearly proud of herself for leaving a long lasting mark. "I was just marking what's mine!"

When Gaara comes out of the bathroom looking relieved, Naruto drags him to bed and proclaims that they'll be staying up all night to watch bad movies and eat popcorn.

Gaara has no complaints.

 **oOo**

"They're too lovey-dovey." Haruno Sakura sneers in disgust; her hazel green eyes remain on the idol couple. They're sitting together again, just as they always do. Today the redhead, Gaara, is silently brushing through messy blonde hair with the clear intent to use the bright orange ponytail on his wrist.

Naruto relaxes, and it almost looks like she's dozing off.

Beside Sakura, Ino just smiles. Her head rests on the back of her hand, and her eyes warm considerably at the sight. "I think it's cute. I want a boyfriend like that one day..." She huffs, a bit disappointed in her own love life when theirs was so bright that it was literally shimmering.

"That's the reason they're the idol couple."

"Idol idiots." Sakura scoffs.

"You say that, but Gaara totally scored highest on the last exam and Naruto scored second." The pink haired girl twitches. "Which means they both scored higher than you and your precious Sasuke-kun."

Next to Sakura, Sasuke flinches. There's a very annoyed look on his face as he sends a hard, chilling glare towards the power couple. Neither of them react in the slightest, which only further pisses him off.

No, he shakes his head and calms down. He can't let them get to her.

Class is an hour long and the teacher is forty five minutes late, meaning that there's only fifteen minutes left of class. Kakashi doesn't seem to care in the slightest. "Sorry I'm late, I was helping an old lady cross the street."

"We're at school, teacher. You'd have to leave the gates for that." Naruto retorts with a playful grin.

"I got lost on the road of life."

"It's a straight walk from your house to the school. You live two minutes away."

"I was helping a cat get out of a tree..."

"I saw you sleeping in the teacher's lounge."

Kakashi clears his throat and wipes the sweat off of his forehead; he's long since realized that it's impossible to make excuses when it comes to Naruto, so he changes the subject completely. "Anyway. We're going on a school trip next week and I need you all to have these permission slips signed and brought back to me by tomorrow."

"Teacher, where are we going?"

He shrugs. "Somewhere that's not here." The school bell rings loudly to let them know that it's time for lunch; Kakashi puts the permission slips on his desk with a sly smile. "Have a good day, enjoy your lunch, work hard in gym class, see you!" He's out of the room just as quickly as he came in.

A pale blonde girl scoots her chair up next to Gaara's and Naruto; the redhead's gaze is cautious, whereas Naruto looks a bit curious. "Hey, so do you mind if I eat lunch with you?"

The two exchange a glance, and seem to come to an agreement at the same time. "Sure."

Naruto shuffles through her bag and brings out a rather large lunch box and spreads it out on the table in front of her and Gaara, who sits next to each other conveniently. Ino's lunch is much, much smaller and less extravagant. "Woah," She looks at Naruto curiously. "How do you stay so skinny?"

The blonde shrugs. "Fast metabolism? Gaara's the same but he weighs a bit more. It's muscle, of course."

"You're constantly moving too. If you didn't eat at least this much, I'm sure you'd be a skeleton."

Naruto sticks her tongue out. "Skeletons aren't fun to hug."

"Nope."

Ino puts a hand over her mouth as she laughs; these two were a riot! Why hasn't she talked to them like this before? She's been missing out! "You guys pretty much share everything huh?"

"It's easier that way." Gaara says simply.

"Mm." Naruto's cheeks remind Ino of a chipmunk; she munches happily and then swallows so much at once that it almost looks like she's going to choke. "Cause we live together."

"YOU LIVE TOGETHER?!" The entire class looks their way and Ino flushes, embarrassed at her own outburst. She whispers an apologetic 'sorry,' but then repeats herself at a much quieter tone. "You live together?"

The two nod simultaneously. "For how long?"

Naruto gives a tiny hum. "For about two years now, right?"

"Yeah. About two years."

Gaara picks up one of the oddly round rice balls and takes a bite out of it; he's clearly pleased to find salmon in the middle, as he takes another one and places it in front of himself. Naruto stretches out a hand to take an abandoned grain of rice that had gotten stuck on his lip, Ino blushes when the blonde plops into her mouth and continues on as if nothing had happened.

It's almost like they're connected.

'So bold!' She thinks. "How long have you been dating?"

"About two years."

"You moved in with each other right after you started dating? Didn't you just meet?"

Naruto shakes her head. "We've known each other since we were five! There were some problems with where I was living before, so we left together and we only recently came back to Konoha."

Ino gasps. 'They're runaways! They ran away together and became adults! How romantic!"

"Gaara look, seafood!" She opens her mouth to show half chewed food that she hasn't swallowed yet; Gaara smacks her over the head softly and rolls his eyes, she just giggles.

Laughing and trying to swallow a mouthful of food doesn't work out too well, and she quickly starts choking. Gaara holds their canteen of tea just out of reach. "It's karma. God's punishing you for your bad manners."

She has a hand pressed against her throat while the other desperately reaches for the canteen; her face is pale by the time he finally gives it to her, she chugs it down greedily. "Gaara that's mean!"

"You survived. I guess that means God forgives you."

Ino sweat drops and thinks that maybe they're not adults quite yet. Another part of her says that they act like an old married couple. Her arm accidentally brushes against Naruto's and it's an accident, but the ocean eyed teen pulls her arm back so fast that Ino wonders if she should feel offended.

Naruto blushes, a bit embarrassed with herself. "I'm sorry. I've got this thing called Haphephobia."

Gaara nods. "It's the fear of being touched."

Ino breathes, feeling a bit better that Naruto's action wasn't anything personnel. "Does it mean that you just can't touch anyone? Or is it just like people you don't know well?"

"I can't touch anyone." Her blue eyes pan over towards Gaara. "Gaara's different though, I've always been able to touch him."

She wants to ask why, but it's clear that neither of them would have a proper explanation. Gaara just shrugs his shoulders whereas Naruto seems to think long and hard about why she's never had any trouble touching him.

Suddenly a light bulb appears above her head. "It's cause Gaara makes me feel safe."

She leans her head onto his shoulder and rubs it much like a cat would; he rubs her head lovingly, and Ino starts to wonder how long it will be until Naruto starts purring.

The pale blonde rests her head on both of her hands, a warm smile on her face. "You guys really are special."

Neither of them seem to hear her.

 **oOo**

"Ooh, Gaara!"

Naruto happily drags her boyfriend around the store by his hand while picking up groceries. Their shopping basket is nearly full and Gaara has been ready to leave since the moment they walked in. "We almost forgot the instant ramen!"

She holds up the packages of miso ramen excitedly before dropping that into the basket as well; he's patient, especially when she spins around and grabs a bottle of honey off of the shelves. "What? Tell me you don't like it when I put honey in your tea. Tell me."

He responds with silence.

"See? You like it as much as I do." She teases, kissing his cheek and says something cheesy. "But not as much as I like you."

He blushes and puts a hand over face, searching desperately for an off switch that doesn't seem to be there. "Awhh, you know you love me."

She takes his hand again excitedly; this time he's the one leading her to the check out counter, preventing her from running off to pick something up that they don't need. They're about halfway out the door when they're stopped, and Naruto becomes so deathly quiet that it worries him.

"Naruto?" He asks as she shifts behind him; something that she doesn't do unless she's terribly scared or nervous. "What's wrong?"

"Naruto!" A woman's' voice catches his attention; she reminds him of a certain Uchiha, her eyes an intense black and her hair a silky black. "Why if it isn't Naruto! Look at you, you've grown so much."

The blonde's free hand wraps itself around Gaara's arm and pulls the boy into her chest. She looks uncomfortable; if she hadn't been holding onto him right now, then surely she would've ran away by now. "You look so much like your mother nowadays. Though you've got your father's hair."

She pauses; for the first time since she came up to them, she gives Gaara a long hard look. "Who might this be?"

"I'm Gaara." He doesn't bow. "Naruto's boyfriend."

She puts a hand over her mouth, surprised. "Gaara, huh? Well it's a pleasure to meet you. You two should come over to our house sometime, I'm sure Itachi would be happy to see little Naruto again. He was really sad when you left, after all."

Naruto's eyes narrow and she bites her tongue; she knows, Gaara, knows, and Mikoto knows that she didn't just 'leave.' The majority of the Uchiha family had decided that they had enough with her and sent her back to the orphanage, not that Naruto had any complaints about it though.

The Uchihas' were just too much for Naruto.

"Well, it was nice seeing you again." The woman gives a tiny wave and turns to leave, but not before looking over her shoulder one last time. "Please be sure to visit sometime, we'd be happy to have you."

Gaara looks down at Naruto as if to ask if she's okay, but there's a cold look in her eyes that the red head can't read. It's almost as if she's closed herself off; Gaara's never seen it before.

She pinches onto the back of his shirt and ducks her head.

Neither of them talk on the way home.

If that's not bad enough, then Naruto goes straight to bed and skips dinner entirely.

That night he prods her in the side with his finger; poking her rib cage with his pointer finger, and waiting for her to give him some sort of feedback. She just rolls over and turns her back to him; something pulls in his chest and he feels upset.

Up until this point, she's told him everything. She's tells him every dream and every nightmare she has at night, how she feels during the day, and what kinds of things are upsetting her when she's unhappy.

Now he just feels locked out.

"Naruto," He sighs. "If you don't tell me, how am I supposed to know what's wrong?"

She doesn't reply.

"I'm going to go into the kitchen and eat all of your ramen."

"..."

"I'm going to use all the honey too."

"..."

"I'm going hide your clementines."

"..."

He runs a hand through his hair, frustrated. "What do you want me to do?"

"Nothing." She replies; her voice in a distant monotone. "I'm fine."

"You're obviously not fine. Just tell me what's wrong and we can move on."

"I'm fine." She repeats, burying her head in her pillow. "Just leave me alone for a bit."

Gaara removes his hand from her side as he abruptly stands up, "Whatever, Naruto." He leaves the room and closes the door behind him, leaving Naruto behind with her demons.

She puts a hand over her face to hide the tears.

 **『君は一人じゃない‐** **You are not alone** **』**

 **A/N: I forget to mention it constantly, but this is a collab with The Dark Crimson Blood. As always, thank you for working with me. :)**

 **Thank you to my reviewers, though there are never many that's okay. I'm just happy that you are willing to take the extra time to leave a couple words behind. Really, thank you so much. :)**

 **That's all for today, folks. :)**

 **~Berries**

 **Nothing to see here...**

 **~Crimsy (The Dark Crimson Blood)**


	4. 独りにしないで

_Updated 4/11/17 04:02_ **  
独りにしないで。**

"Naruto," A caretaker says, his eyes dark and a large smile on his face. "You've been adopted."

The door opens, revealing an elderly looking back with a cane and bandages around his face. He smiles at her, but there's something in his one visible eye that she's not fond of. Hate? Contempt? Disgust?

She stiffens as the orphanage door shuts behind her, a small bag filled with the few things she owns rests on her back. She's leaving. Leaving to go live with this weird old man who seemed to already know her somehow.

"You must be Naruto." His eyes crinkle.

Run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run...

"No!"

Sixteen year old Naruto opens her eyes with a start; her heart beats furiously in her chest and she her breathing is frantic. Her body won't stop shaking. Out of reflex, she reaches towards the right side of the bed only to find that the body that is usually there isn't there today.

Panic, fear, and worry all clouds her vision at once. "Gaara?" She calls; maybe he went for a glass of water or maybe he had to go to the bathroom. Once more, there's no reply. She fears for the worse until she remembers what happened last night.

Once she remembers, she feels like shit.

Not so much physically, but more mentally than anything else. She feels angry and upset and disappointed in herself for locking herself up like that and treating Gaara so harshly; he had tried to hard just to talk to her, just to open her up and understand what was wrong. She had blown him off each and every time.

Finally, she remembers him leaving.

When Naruto goes to explore the house he finds that Gaara isn't sleeping on the couch, he's not in the kitchen waiting to talk to her, and his shoes aren't in the doorway anymore. He's gone. He's gone. Gaara is gone.

They've never fought like this before. What if he doesn't come back? What if he never comes back? Out of panic and agitation, she claws at her skin and digs her fingers into her flesh so roughly that she leaves red marks behind.

What would she do without Gaara?

Gaara could survive on his own without her. He could go back to his very loving siblings and move in with them; he could go about life without having to take care of extra baggage. Really, that's all she was. Baggage that was weighing him down.

A world without Gaara would be impossible for her to live in. She sure as hell couldn't live on her own, and she couldn't go back to the orphanage instead. It wasn't as if she could get a job without Gaara either, she became a quiet and timid and scared when he wasn't nearby. She didn't know what to do without him.

She couldn't survive without him.

She'd probably end up living on the streets, but really a life without Gaara wasn't a life at all. Maybe she should just die; that way she could just sleep forever without having to worry about anything or anyone.

She sighs and wonders how she'd do it. Maybe she's take all the pills in the closet, maybe she'd just off the roof, maybe she'd jump in front of a care and wait- wasn't that how her parents died? It was only suiting that she'd die like that too.

Surely the car crash would have to be on the highway where everyone liked to speed, and obviously she'd need a car to get hit in. It sounded like it would take too long, and if she survived then things would only get worse.

Maybe she could just hang herself with the bed sheets.

No, she shakes her head. She's just upset, it's not as if she actually means to do any of this. Her normally bright blue eyes only get hazier as she puts on her shoes and heads out the door; it's still dark outside, the stars are up. She heads out anyway.

It's dark and cold and miserable outside; Naruto's not wearing anything but a pair of fleece shorts that she uses to sleep in and a baggy white shirt that belongs to Gaara, it smells like him but it's so big that it hangs off of her shoulder.

Her shoes drag across the sidewalk as she walks aimlessly.

The river glistens underneath the moonlight; Naruto takes off her shoes and lets her bare feet touch the cold water. There are already goosebumps on her arms and legs, but that doesn't stop her from inching further and further in.

She's about thigh deep when a strong pair of arms grabs her and pulls her back onto the ground.

"Little girls like you aren't supposed to be out this late."

It's a delayed reaction.

Naruto looks Itachi Uchiha dead in his eyes before quickly moving out of his grasp; she takes a deep calming breath and releases it, almost as if calming herself down. "I'm not little."

"You'll always be little to me. You're still a baby, Naruto."

She rolls her eyes; water drips down her legs and pools at her feet, she wonders if she should put her shoes back on because it doesn't seem as if he plans on leaving her alone for awhile. "I'm nearly seventeen. You only five years older than me, Itachi."

"Old enough." He retorts. "You aren't trying to go swimming at this time of day, do you? It's not safe."

She raises an eyebrow and gives a sarcastic response. "Really? I had thought this would be the best time to take a dip."

"I'm not a part of your life and your not a part of mine anymore; you don't have to listen to me but I suggest you think things out a bit more before you make such dire decisions."

Naruto's blue eyes become downcast, her blonde hair covers her face.

"If you don't, you're going to create an even bigger problem that can't be fixed. It'll hurt the people you love much more than you could imagine. Are you willing to take that risk?"

She sighs. "Okay, Itachi."

When he reaches out to flick her forehead, she doesn't so much as budge. She doesn't pull back in fear doesn't stiffen when his finger comes into contact with her; instead she gives he tiniest smile she could manage. "Thanks."

"Go home."

He doesn't have to tell her twice.

By the time she's gone, Itachi turns his back to the river. "You go home too." His voice sounds cold; his eyebrows are furrowed angrily. "And stay the hell away from Naruto."

The elderly man in the distance just smiles.

 **oOo**

"I'm sorry for running off."

"I'm sorry for shutting you out."

"I'm sorry for making you worry."

Naruto stares at the door to their apartment and practices what she's going to say to Gaara when she finally sees him; but none of them seem right. Getting frustrated with herself, she runs a hand through her hair and gives an agitated sigh.

Just what was she supposed to say?

She opens her mouth once more, but not a single word comes out. If anything, she jumps a bit when the door suddenly opens without the slightest bit of warning. Gaara's got on a coat and shoes and his phone is held so tightly in his hand that it looks like it hurts.

Upon seeing her, he stops.

Everything seems to freeze for the longest of times; his phone slides right out of his hands and hits the ground, and he wraps both of his arms around her with all his might. They just stay like that for a moment, until his shoulders start to tremble and all of a sudden he's crying on her shoulder.

She holds his head close to her chest. "Gaara," She breathes; his tears melt into the fabric of her shirt. "I'm sorry."

It's cold outside, he realizes. She's not wearing a coat or anything to keep the cold weather away, and yet here they were just standing. She felt freezing to the touch; he composes himself for a moment and takes just enough time to pull her inside and shut the door behind them.

"I was so worried." He says; his voice is shaky, he's just as scared as she was. "I was scared that something happened to you... I came back, and you, you weren't here. I thought you ran away... I thought you left, Naruto."

She shakes her head. "Where would I go? Gaara, you're my home."

"Where did you go?"

"I was looking for you." That was the original plan. Go find Gaara and drag him back home, but it ended up with 'Go drown in a lake because you're nothing without him.' Not that she would tell him that last part, though. "Where did you go?"

"To the store." She raises an eyebrow as if to ask why. "Chamomile tea helps you relax. We were out, so I had to go buy more."

She wipes her own burning eyes. "I thought you left too... I, I didn't know what to do... Yknow I'm nothing without you right? I, I don't think I could live without you."

He presses their foreheads together. "Don't say that."

"It's true!" She blinks, her expression looks troubled. "I love you so much that if... I had come home and you hadn't come back then I..."

He wipes the tears out of her eyes before they fall; she feels herself being pulled into a much needed embrace. It warms her soul and the tears just come spilling out. "I'm s-sorry yknow? You were just trying to help me, and I, i..."

"It's okay," He breathes. "It's okay, so forget about it. Just don't be afraid to tell me things. I won't push you though. Okay?"

She nods. "Okay."

She grips onto his Tee shirt with trembling fingers. "I really was scared, when I woke up you weren't there. I really did think..."

He puts a thumb underneath her chin and lifts he head up, successfully forcing blue eyes and turquoise eyes to meet. "I'll never leave you, Naruto."

Naruto gives a curt nod of understanding; burying her face into his chest and latching onto his warmth, never to let go again. "I won't either."

The two of them stay there all night, never to be disturbed and never to move from the doorway until morning.

How toxic.

 **oOo**

Having somehow made it into bed, Naruto wakes up and stares at her sleeping boyfriend's face.

She moves the hair out of his face so she can kiss his forehead; his skin is warm to the touch and there's a fluttery feeling in her chest that's left behind. She puts a hand on his face lightly, as if not to wake him. "How did I get so lucky?" She wonders out loud.

Naruto makes sure to kiss his nose this time, then his cheek, and then his lips. "Yknow you're stuck with me, right?"

Turquoise eyes stare back at her. "Yknow you can't escape anymore, right?" He repeats in the same tone she had used and a smile spreads across her face; his arms warp around her and pull her in for a closer embrace. "I'm serious."

"Me too."

Gaara gives a comfortable sigh. "Good. Now be quiet and go to bed."

"But it's morning. We're gonna miss school."

"Fuck school."

Naruto giggles more than she should. "Ohh, you rebel."

"Learned from the best." He closes his eyes once more and cuddles against her; with his strong arms wrapped around her midsection, there's no way she's going anywhere again.

Feeling safe, secure, and happy, Naruto lets her blue eyes close as well.

"Love you."

"Oove you too..."

 **oOo**

"Naruto,"

Naruto looks up from her desk and inches a bit behind her boyfriend, who was already glaring the intruder down with all his might. Ino sports an amused look; she's never seen the Uchiha so desperate for a girl before.

The blonde replies with a cold, "Uchiha."

For the first time in history, Sasuke looks awkward. He doesn't know what to say or what to do or how to approach he girl he's had his eyes on since the day she walked into their school. "I wanted to apologize for the other day, I didn't realize that you had a phobia."

"Is that even an apology? You say it as if you would do it anyway, phobia or not." Gaara scowls, clearly upset with Sasuke's choice of words.

Ino's long lashes flutter as she makes a move to contribute to the conversation. "Yeah, he does it to all the girls he puts an eye on. He just kinda dates anyone, as long as they're pretty. Right, Uchiha?"

Sasuke's glare lands harshly on Ino, but she doesn't budge in the slightest. "Sometimes he dates a couple girls at once, but once he fucks them once or twice he breaks it off. If you won't sleep with him then he won't even consider you. It's disgusting."

"I've heard about it." Gaara replies.

Ino nods. "It's kinda everywhere. Besides, it's kinda funny that he thinks he has a chance with little Naru over here." She pauses to twirl her long pale blonde hair, a sly look in her eye as she looks back at the Uchiha. "I guess he's just upset that the one girl he can't have is the only one he wants."

"Shut the fuck up Ino, don't act like you're any better."

"Yes, when I was drooling over your face just as everyone else was. Until I realized how ugly your personality was and that I could do so, so much better."

He makes a move as if to hit her, but Naruto moves in front of her as if to block the hit that never comes. From behind Naruto, Gaara's hand stretches out and grabs hold of the Uchiha's wrist.

He tightens his grip. "You'd better go, Uchiha. Nobody wants you here."

The rest of the classroom just watches as if waiting for a fight to break out; Sasuke looks around the room and realizes that at this moment, he's alone. The girls who used to stand at his side aren't even looking at him anymore; Sakura, even Sakura just huffs as he looks her way.

He's never left in such a hurry.

The class cheers, but the trio of friends don't pay them much attention. "Naruto, you totally just jumped in front of me just then. What if he touched you?"

Naruto shrugs, almost as if though the idea didn't bother her at all. "I had to protect my friend."

"Friend?" Ino's eyes sparkle.

Naruto nods in recognition. "That's why Gaara protected you too, cause we're friends."

Ino smiles and her eyes shift towards Sakura as she recalls their childhood days when everything was about flowers and sunshine, far before everything changed and the meaning of friends seemed to be something completely different.

It's been a long time since Ino felt so happy.

"Of course." She smiles. "We're friends."

 **oOo**

Naruto throws her hands up into the air victoriously as she completes her homework; there wasn't too much today. Sometimes she rushes through it so fast that she makes a lot of stupid mistakes in the process; then Gaara tells her to do it again, and obviously she listens.

Today, however, she takes her time while her boyfriend naps on the couch.

She shoves her completed homework into her school bag, not caring in the slightest if the papers were ripped or crumbled in the process. Her phone vibrates and she opens it curiously; the only numbers who ever call her are Gaara's, and more recently Ino.

It's not a surprise when she finds Ino texting in their group chat.

 **Ino** : Hey, did you hear that the trip we're taking this week is to the mountains? They're gonna make us hike up a huge pile of dirt and then we've gotta sleep in tents. Can you believe that?!(´;ω;｀)

 **Naruto** : Cool! That sounds fun! Mountains are awesome. ( ´∀｀ )

 **Ino** : The bugs, Naruto, the bugs.

 **Naruto** : You've got Shino right? Just stay by him.

 **Ino** : Ugh!

Naruto puts her phone back down on the table and stretches out her arms. Had the school trip been to a place like a hot spring or Kyoto, she would've been perfectly happy staying home. However going on a hike would be a completely different story; she loved nature!

She loved nature just as much as she loved pranks; she stops midway of drawing a mustache on Gaara's face with her favorite red marker. There's someone at the door, probably the old lady who lived next door and stopped by with cookies because Gaara looks a lot like her oldest grandchild.

There's a huge grin on Naruto's face as she undoes every lock on the door, and then opens it just fast enough to avoid the squeak it emitted. "Hiya Grann-" She stops, because it's not Granny Chiyo on the other side.

Instead it's a boy with shaggy brown hair, dressed in black.

Naruto locks the screen door.

"Who are you and what do you want?" She questions; her eyes narrowed suspiciously. It was very rare that anyone her own age would just show up at her door for no reason; it wasn't wrong to be cautious.

The brown haired teenager looks a bit annoyed with her. "Cmon, Whiskers. It's me."

Her eyes narrow and for about a minute or two, she just stares at him. The poor teenager sweatdrops underneath her gaze, but then a sense of belated realization hits Naruto. "Puppet Boy! You called me fishcake!" She looks offended, but that doesn't stop her from opening the door to let him in despite this.

He apologizes for the intrusion just as any house guest should; the door shuts gently behind him, and Naruto points to his shoes as if to tell him he needs to take them off. He complies and follows her inside the small apartment.

"Why are you here, anyway?" She questions while leading him into the kitchen. There was a thing about surprise visits where they were either very good, or very bad. Naruto could only hope that this one went in their favor.

He sits down in one of the kitchen chairs. "It's about Gaara." Instinctively, Naruto's blue eyes shift towards the sleeping teenager on the couch. "In a way, it's about you too. I guess."

She pours him a cup of tea. "How?"

"It's our father. He's a bit upset that no one told him that you moved back to Konoha after your two years with Uncle Yashamaru. He wants Gaara to come back to Suna."

Her nose shrivels up in confusion. "But why? He hasn't lived there since he was four, wouldn't it make more sense for him to stay in Konoha?"

"It's mother. She hasn't been doing so well on her own and it's not like he has time to take care of her, you know how their relationship is." He sighs, mixing a good deal of sugar into his green tea. "Temari's studying abroad, and I've got my own business to take care of... Gaara,"

"Is the only one who can do it." Naruto finishes for him. She can't help but feel like she's being selfish, but she really doesn't want Gaara to go. That man didn't like her in the least bit, and the last thing she wanted was to go with him and then be scowled and scorned at the entire time she was there. That would only make things worse.

The good mood she was in earlier dies away and leaves nothing but silence.

Repetition is dangerous.

 **『独りにしないで。** **Don't Leave Me Alone』**


	5. 呼吸忘れないで

_Updated 11/04/17 04:20  
_ **呼吸忘れないで**

"I talked to Yashamaru last night."

Naruto looks up from her ramen; the chopsticks she had been using to push them around the bowl, is long abandoned on the table. She raises an eyebrow curiously. "About what? Your mother?"

Gaara nods; he simultaneously reaches over to spray a bit of whipped cream on Naruto's waffles, in hopes of making them more appetizing. She never could deny sweets, after all. She looks a bit unhappy. "Yeah. It turns out that he didn't even know that Mother needed extra care."

"It's good that you let him know."

Naruto sounds a bit distant, but Gaara presses on because he's trying to get her to understand why this was such a good thing. "He wants to take care of her. Which means that all I have to do is go to Suna and make sure she has a safe trip to America."

There's a bit of relief on her face; this time she even seems more amused with him when he proceeds to sprinkle blueberries on top of the whipped cream on her waffles. "Then how long will you be gone for now?"

"Two weeks, tops."

Two weeks still sounded like a long time.

After all, two weeks was the same thing as fourteen days.

Fourteen days was the same as three hundred and thirty six hours

Three hundred and thirty six hours was twenty thousand, one hundred and sixty minutes

In the end it would be 1,209,600 seconds that she spent without Gaara.

She puts her head down on the table while trying to find something positive to say about the change of plans. "I'm hoping that it won't take any more than a week though."

He cuts apart her waffles with his silverware and picks up a chunk of it with his fork; with a bored look in his eyes, he holds it up to her face as if expecting her to let him feed her. She gives him a playful glare, but opens up anyway. "Hopefully." She repeats.

"You need to call me every morning." She says; the bowl of ramen nearly pushed completely across the table, the owner didn't seem to have the slightest intent on eating another bite. This only proved how upset she was; ramen was her favorite food in the world, after all.

Right now it just made her sick.

Gaara pushes the bowl back in front of her. "And you need to call me every night."

Their hands intertwine over the table top. For a moment ocean blue and turquoise eyes just stare at each other, and it lasts until the doorbell rings. Kankuro's here to pick up Gaara.

She hugs him so tightly that it hurts, it hurts her chest and her head and her heart and everything. It hurts even more to let go, and then watch him leave knowing that he's not coming back.

Suddenly everything feels weird. Their apartment doesn't feel like a home anymore because his shoes are gone, his coat is gone, his clothing is gone, and he's gone too

She puts a hand over her throat and reminds herself to breathe.

 **oOo**

"Is she... Alive?"

Yamanaka Ino looks up at her friend Chouji, who carried an extra large bag of chips in his arms as he stands next to Ino. In turn, she gives a tiny smile. "For the most part." The blonde looks like the walking dead right now; unbelievably pale, messy hair, and a pair of hazed blue eyes that remain unresponsive."

In addition to that she moved sluggishly and she wasn't talking to anyone at all; Ino wondered if she even knew where she was right now. "What's wrong with her?"

"Gaara left on a trip, and she's never been away from him for more than a day before."

Chouji's eyes soften in understanding; he holds his bag of chips out towards the dead-looking blonde, urging her to take some. She doesn't budge in the slightest; but her stomach rumbles, letting them both know that she's hungry.

Ino rolls her eyes. "Sometimes I wonder if she even knows if she's here or not. I mean, this is the first time in four days that she's been to class." She shakes her head at the thought. "I had to drag her here myself, y'know?"

The slightly heavier boy nods in understanding, shoving his mouth full of chips unconsciously. "Her stomach just rumbled though. She's probably hungry." Ino lightly, very lightly taps the shorter blonde's shoulder.

"Are you eating?"

Naruto rolls her head to the left, away from Ino's prodding eyes. "Yes."

Chouji leans over to whisper in his friend's ear. "I think she's lying."

"Of course she's lying, idiot!" Ino snaps back loudly, smacking him in the back of the head for pointing out something so obvious. "The two of these idiots have known each other since they were five! I doubt she's even knows how to take care of herself without him around. For gods sake she looks dead!"

Naruto lets out a low groan, and Chouji bites back the need to declare that dead people don't groan. "No, I think she's dying."

"Then all we have to do is keep her alive long enough for Gaara to come back."

Looking at Naruto, the two realize that it may be harder than it sounds.

 **oOo**

"Sit down, sit the fuck down!"

Five year old Naruto complies with the scary man who she had been adopted by. Is this what a real father was supposed to act like? Fugaku and Mikoto had been so much nicer... This man was kind of scary, but there's not really anything she can do to get away from him.

She pulls her knees further into her chest

Personally, she liked the orphanage better. Even when all the other kids wanted to steal her food or when she could never really be alone, she even liked the Uchiha's home better than this!

He was the one who complicated things by dragging her upstairs and making her sit in the kitchen, it's much brighter compared to the basement.

Nonetheless, Naruto settles in. Though there is a pit of uneasiness that settles in her stomach as the man passes by her again, his steps so loud that they shake the room. His face is an eerie calm, but there's an anger in his eye that she can't ignore.

Her ears perk up and the hairs on the back of her neck stand tall when he finally turns to face her, a hand behind her back as he smiles.

"I knew your parents."

She looks up from her knees, a bit curious about the two people who would've become such a big part of her life if they had lived. The man smiles at her sudden interest.

"That's right. Your mommy and Daddy. Kushina and Minato."

Blue eyes that were hidden underneath golden blonde hair look at him piercingly.

"Your face looks a lot like your mother's. You're eyes too. I loved her, I loved her so much, Naruto. Not like a love interest, of course. I loved her beauty more than anything else." He bends down to cup her chin, squeezing her face and forcing her head upwards. "You'd look exactly like her too. If it wasn't for that hair..."

He pulls at a couple strands of bright blonde hair, a look of absolute disgust on his face as the color reflects in his eyes. "It looks like your father's... Minato... I hated Minato. He corrupted her. He made her... impure."

Naruto swallows thickly; her mouth feels dry and she can practically feel her heart beating out of her chest. Something bad is going to happen and Naruto knows full well that there's no way to escape. The door is too far away, this guy is much bigger and much taller than her too. It wouldn't be anything close to a fair fight.

"That man took her away, and he didn't stop there... "Even if she tried to get away, he'd grab her easily and who knows how much worse things would get. "He didn't stop there though, he wouldn't stop until he ruined my life. Do you what he did next?"

In the end she just sits there, listening to his rant and imagining the worst possible scenarios. "DO YOU KNOW WHAT HE DID NEXT?" He yells again, this time much louder and much scarier than before.

Naruto's not too sure when she started shaking; her voice comes out in nothing more than a quiet whisper. "What... Did he do next?"

The man grins. "He put me in jail."

The little girl doesn't dare budge as the man grabs her collar so tightly that it leaves red marks on her neck. He drags her so far into the air that her feet are forced to dangle; having nothing to stand on, or make contact with. It's a helpless feeling. She bites back the need to claw at his arms to get him to let go, but she knows it would just be wasting effort.

"Do you want to know how long I was in jail for?"

He drops her onto the table and she gasps for breath; the tears coming out of her eyes just won't stop, and her steady breathing has long since become hyperventilation.

"Six years." He holds out six fingers. He pats her head but it does nothing to calm her. "Calm down, okay? You're fine. We're almost done. I'd say that I'd let you go home soon... But you don't have a home, do you?"

"I digress." He shakes his head as if to get back on track. "I was in that damn prison for six years. For six years I suffered, while he got to live with the most beautiful woman in the world... I wanted revenge."

She gives him a look that asks what that could possibly have to do with her, and of course he's all too happy to answer. "They died on me. Both of them. That bastard just took her away from me for a second time, and left me with no chance for revenge."

He pauses. Naruto's run out of tears a long time ago.

"But then I heard that he had a baby, a baby who's family had been changed to match her mother's... After all my years of searching, I didn't even have to look for her because all of sudden she was adopted into the Uchiha family. I guess god is on my side for this one."

He shoves her off the table and pins her to the ground, but not without grabbing the red hot knife that had been left on the stove. "Today, I'm going to make up for the six years I spent in prison." The knife doesn't even have to touch her face for her to feel the heat coming off of it. "By giving Minato's child six scars that will never go away."

As soon as the knife touches her face, Naruto screams.

She screams and swears that no one will ever touch her again.

A sixteen year old Naruto wakes up and tries to remember how to breathe.

It's roughly three am when she's is jump started with a nightmare that she hasn't had in a long, long time. Her entire body is shaking; she's covered in a cold sweat, her eyes are wide in fear and she can't seem to gain control of her breathing.

She reaches over to the small bed stand on her side, knocking over every little thing there as she attempts to find her phone. The alarm clock, notepad, pencils, and even the little panda teddy bear that reminded her of Gaara goes falling to the ground.

Finally, she gets her hands on her cellphone. It seems to take forever just to turn on, and when she finally does she calls the very first emergency contact on her phone.

It rings.

It rings again.

Someone picks up.

"Naruto? Hello? It's a bit early for your morning call, and very late for my bedtime call. Is everything okay?"

Even just hearing his voice is calming enough for Naruto; her violent shaking has calmed down to a much controllable point already, and it feels like it would be a lot easier to talk now. "No," She says truthfully.

There's a bit of silence on the other end; when Gaara finally speaks up again, he sounds much more serious. "Do you want to talk about it."

"Yeah." A shaky finger runs through her messy hair; missing the times she had someone beside her to hug and cry on whenever these nightmares came by. Today, she had no one. Talking on the phone just wasn't enough. "It was just a nightmare, I'll talk to you when you get home."

"Are you sure, if it's gotten you this worked up then maybe-"

"No, I'm fine. Really. I'm just overreacting a bit." She sighs. There's noise in the background of his phone call; voices from people that Naruto definitely doesn't recognize. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, everything's fine. I'm sorry, but I've gotta go. I'll talk to you tonight okay?" He sounds rushed, Naruto doesn't want him to go but that would be selfish.

Instead she breathes a simple, "Okay." Then he hangs up without even saying 'I love you.' It's weird because she's so used to saying it after every phone call, after every good morning and every good night. It's weird, because this is the first time she's ever felt like she wasn't the most important thing to him anymore.

She was second place now, and she didn't like it.

Naruto puts her head into her hands and lets everything out.

 **oOo**

"Naruto, I know you're in there."

Ino stares at the closed door impatiently; she's been standing outside for nearly half an hour now, and there hasn't been a single reply on the other side. Naruto was definitely in there; Ino was sure of it. Where else would she go? She had nowhere and no one besides her and Gaara.

"It's been three days since you've come to school. If you need to talk... I might not be Gaara, but I'm a friend."

Again, there's no reply. On the other side of the door Naruto sits with her legs curled into her chest tightly; her head rests on her knees as she stares at the floor listlessly. She doesn't so much as budge, even after all the constant knocking and yelling from the other side.

Ino tightens her fists; her face is scrunched up in frustration. "Please, just let me in."

"Why?" A monotone voice finally speaks up. "If you let people in, it's exhausting. And it hurts when they leave."

"No one's leaving you Naruto. Ino feels exhausted. "You just aren't letting us stay. You don't have to be alone."

"It's better to be alone."

Ino clicks her tongue against the roof of her mouth, clearly annoyed. "Fine. Be by yourself then!"

She storms off and Naruto puts her head down even further; her hair shielding her eyes even further. The cellphone that had been loosely held in her right hand, slides out of her grip and hits the ground.

The screen lights up.

40 Unread messages

12 Missed Calls

2 Voicemail

 **oOo**

"You need to eat something, sweetheart."

A redheaded teenager sits at the dinner table with his head in his hands; he looks tired and sickly and almost dead on his feet. "I'm not hungry." He nearly snaps, but the apologetic look in his eyes lets his mother know that he didn't mean it.

"She stopped calling me. No texts or anything. I need, need, need to know how she's doing. What if something happened to her? What if Uchiha did something? What if something went wrong at school? What if she needs me and I'm not there?"

Her eyebrows furrow and she calmly reaches for his hand, but he yanks it away and shakes his head. "You don't understand... I, I need to hear from her. Morning, afternoon, night... I need to know if she's okay!"

"Calm down sweetie, I'm sure everything's fine." Her eyes worriedly stare at him because for the past three days he hasn't touched his food, he hasn't slept for any longer than two hours, and he's constantly rambling off possibilities that seem insane. He's all shaken up and it's all because of this one girl.

He had acted the same after showing up in Suna for the first time, but things had gotten better quickly. Most likely due to the constant phone calls, pictures, and text messages. Now for some reason it's all stopped, and Gaara's back ot square one again.

Her eyes soften. Was this love or addiction? "What if she doesn't love me anymore?"

"I'm sure she still loves you."

"What if she ran away with someone else?"

"I'm sure that she'd never leave you."

"What if she doesn't want to see me anymore?"

"Do you really believe that?"

He shakes his head and stands up from the table, refusing to even take a sip of water his mother had placed at the table for him. "I should've just brought her with me. I don't care if father doesn't like her. I should've kept her here with me."

He paces back and forth at a rushed pace. "I need her to know that she's okay, that she's eating well, and that she's taking care of herself. I need her."

"You're going home tomorrow."

Gaara has never felt so relieved to hear those words. Karura wonders if this girl, Naruto, understands just how much Gaara needs her in his life. Or if Gaara understands how dangerous his relationship is.

They're too reliant on each other.

Too dependent.

Too scared to be apart.

She shakes her head and decides that she'll save them before they crash and burn.

 **『呼吸忘れないで** **\- Don't Forget To Breathe』**


	6. 心配するのだ大丈夫です

_Updated 11/04/17 04:30_  
 **『心配するのは大丈夫』**

Gaara nearly forgets his suitcase at the airport when he comes home; it's only when he remembers the good luck charm Naruto had given him before he left, that he goes back. It's a rush from there; the crowd of the airport, the chaos of getting a cab, and then finally standing outside the apartment door.

His fingers brush the cool metal of the doorknob, his suitcase falls to his side and is forgotten once more. He knocks, but there's no reply. Maybe she's sleeping, he thinks. Another part of him says that it's only ten at night, and that Naruto wouldn't be asleep yet.

He knocks again, a bit more desperately this time. "Naruto, Naruto are you home?"

"Naruto please."

"Naruto if you're home, let me know."

"Naruto?"

The door unlocks and a very familiar face peaks through the crack. "It's not home!" She yells stubbornly; she's barely containing herself from reaching out and pulling him inside herself. "It's not home until you come inside."

The door opens fully and he steps in; a feeling of warmth and belonging rushes over him as he does, and it only gets much more intense when he pulls her into a hug. At first, she doesn't hug him back. Gaara knows that there's something wrong.

"What's wrong?"

She looks back at him. "What's wrong with you?"

"I'm fine, but you don't look fine at all."

"Neither do you."

"Were you crying?"

"Yeah. You too, huh?"

"Yeah."

"I," The two of them start simultaneously; they stare at each other as if trying to figure out who should go first or what to say. In the end Naruto's prodding stare is enough for Gaara.

"I missed you so much. The first night was scary without you. I couldn't sleep at all and it was hard to just concentrate on what I was there to do when you weren't next to me. Calling, texting, and video chatting you everyday was the only thing that kept me going." Gaara looks upset. "Then you stopped... and... I couldn't stop worrying. I couldn't figure out why you were ignoring me."

Naruto looks guilty. "I remembered something. It was even worse than that time we fought. When I called you I thought... It would've been weird. I didn't want to talk about it over the phone." She wraps her arms around his neck and pulls his head down into her nape. "Then you hung up on me."

Gaara takes a moment to remember exactly what happened, but it doesn't take long for it to hit him. "It was really chaotic; we were trying to move all of mother's belongings inside and called so he and mother were arguing, and then Yashamaru was-"

"I didn't really care about that part," Naruto interrupts as she shakes her head, her face is a bit red in a way that makes him think that she's a little embarrassed for getting so upset about such a little thing. "You hung up without saying 'I love you.' I just thought..."

He looks guilty. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry Naruto."

"Say it now," She sniffles, eyes starting to water up at the excitement of it all. "Say it now, and I'll forgive you."

"I love you." He kisses her forehead. "I love you more than you could ever imagine."

"I love you more."

"Do not."

"Do too."

"It's impossible."

"It's NaruPossible."

Gaara gives a smile for the first time in days, and Naruto's giggle sounds like a bell to his ears. "I missed this." He pauses to look down at her; her blue eyes sparkle with ten times more mirth than there had been originally. "I missed you."

"I missed you too, idiot. So don't leave again."

"I won't."

Naruto has never felt so reassured in her life; she feels safe and warm and so happy that it makes her giddy.

Gaara feels the same, and refuses to let go.

They can't live like this forever.

 **oOo**

Naruto carefully peels a red apple with a knife, planning on making a fruit platter to take back to bed later. It's hard to move with Gaara draped over her; his naked chest covering the entirety of her back, and his head on her shoulder while his arms wrap loosely around her waist.

It's clear that he's still half asleep, but they're sticking together like glue today and she wouldn't have it any other way. After she finishes cutting the apples up into small bite sized pieces, she dumps the plate into a bowel and picks up the jar of peanut butter to take with her.

Gaara drags his feet as he follows her back into the bedroom, the door is locked behind them and the bed is still warm from earlier. He pulls her in close and she snuggles up to him tightly, clearly pleased with the attention.

"You really weren't eating at all, were you?" She accuses, a finger trailing across shoulders that used to be a lot bigger before he left. His ribs are protruding a bit to, and his cheekbones were a bit more visible. "I like my boyfriend to have a little meat on his bones."

Gaara rolls his eyes and points out her flaws as well. "Like you have any room to talk. Look how much thinner your wrists are. You've got a fast metabolism, remember?"

"And you're anemic. What if you passed out?"

The blonde curtly dips an apple slice in peanut butter, and then drops it into Gaara's mouth the second he tries to argue with her. There's a displeased look on his face, but he munches on it anyway. "You've gotta take care of yourself okay? I'll be worried if you don't."

"You too then." He wipes a small amount of peanut butter on her bottom lip; she happily licks it up, leaving absolutely nothing behind. "If you don't take care of yourself, I'll worry. So from now you're mine."

Naruto raises an eyebrow. "I'm yours? I thought I was already yours."

"Yeah. You were, but I'm just reminding you. You're mine, so you need to take care of my belongings. Okay?"

She grins. "Then you're mine too, and you need to take care of my belongings too."

When Gaara kisses Naruto she tastes of nothing but peanut butter and the remnants of an apple; she's sticky and somehow she tastes a bit of chocolate.

He bites her lip playfully. "When did you eat chocolate?"

She just grins.

 **OoO**

"I had a fight with Ino."

Naruto looks down at her half empty dinner plate, almost as if she were afraid to look at him after confessing. "I told you, I was really upset after you hung up... Then she wouldn't stop bothering me and then I said it would be better if I was alone... So she left."

Gaara gives her a long stare, almost as if trying to question why his girlfriend thought he would be mad at her over such a small fight. "I'm sure all you need to do is apologize."

Her eyes sparkle. "Really?"

"Really." He pauses, looking up from his own plate in attempt to pull more secrets out of her. "Is there anything else you want to tell me?"

She shrugs her shoulders because a million things come to mind, and she's still trying to figure out what she should tell him. Just sharing her troubles with Ino had been hard enough, hadn't it?

Her bright blue eyes narrow. "Is there anything you want to tell me?"

"I've got separation anxiety. Mother had a therapist come by to see if they could understand why I was always agitated." He slows down a bit as if to let her understand before he goes on, this time with a proper explanation. "Separation anxiety is like when you're addicted to someone, and then you're separated and all you do is worry about them."

"I'm not really surprised about that though. I feel the same way, to some extent."

Gaara feels relief at how quickly she had accepted this; but really, he hadn't expected anything else from his blonde. "Now tell me a secret. "

"I like chocolate on my apples too."

Turquoise eyes roll. "Seriously."

"Seriously." She repeats. "They taste even better when you eat them with chocolate AND peanut butter."

The look of annoyance on Gaara's face doesn't change, and sooner or later it gets to Naruto. She had tried to lighten the mood, and failed entirely.

"That day we fought when I wouldn't tell you about my dream, I went to the river. Yknow the one by the Uchiha compound." She starts calmly; Gaara already looks familiar with the event. He urges her to go on. "I tried to drown myself."

His eyes widen and there's a look on his face that asks why he wasn't told this much, much sooner. "Ruto, " He breathes; she puts a hand on his chest and makes steady circles.

"I panicked. I thought you were so angry with me that you had left, that you weren't coming back. I just..." She shakes her head. "I was halfway in before Itachi grabbed me, I wasn't even fully aware of what I was trying to do... He talked me out of it anyway, it was stupid."

Gaara flicks her forehead. "Of course it was. Stupid that you didn't realize how devastated I would be if you died. Especially if it was because of me."

"I know now." She kisses his chin, his cheek, and his mouth. Hands wrapping themselves around his neck and back curving naturally to do so; she buries her face in the crook of his neck and leaves it at that. "So I won't do anything stupid like that again."

"Promise?"

"Yeah."

The doorbell rings and completely ruins the moment; Naruto would've just been content with staring into his eyes for the rest of the day, but he nudges her. "What if it's Granny?"

She pouts; her cheeks puff up as she stubbornly throws the blankets off of her body and lets the cold air leave goosebumps on her skin. It takes Gaara a minute or two to follow; but then he thinks, what if it's not Granny.

Naruto opens the door to find a familiar raven haired male from school, who stood with a stack of papers in his arms an a very amused expression on his face. "Answering the door like that, isn't that it a little risky?"

She looks down and is reminded that she has nothing on but Gaara's Tee shirt and a pair of panties. Nonetheless, she crosses her arms over her chest and subconsciously takes a step back. "What the hell do you want, Uchiha?"

"You've been absent from school for nearly two weeks. Kakashi needed someone to take the homework to your house." He pauses and looks around, nose shriveling up in disgust. "Or apartment, whatever this is."

A very shirtless Gaara drapes himself over his girlfriend; letting his arms wrap around her upper body and his chin rest on top of her head. "Unlike you, Uchiha. We don't need mansions and butlers and maids to be happy. Maybe you should try it too, it's called appreciating what you have instead of selfishly begging for more."

"You actually live together?" He asks in disbelief, trying his best to ignore the previous insults sent his way.

Naruto looks to Gaara and grins, feeling much stronger by his side than she would ever be alone. "Yeah. He's my most important person, yknow? I love him more than anything." Her face flushes from embarrassment, and she wipes her nose. "So I'd never, ever leave him. Especially not for a snot nosed Uchiha brat like you."

She takes the homework from him, and then slams the door in his face.

Sasuke leaves and tries to ignore the laughter coming from inside the apartment room. His fists clench tightly, but he releases them fast.

Calm down and breathe. 'This is the reason you lost you're friends.' Well, he thinks. They were never really friends in the first place.

He knocks on the door once more.

It cracks open, revealing two annoyed faces. "Sorry."

He quickly dismisses himself.

 **oOo**

"Where do you wanna go for summer vacation?"

The teacher just dismissed them, and it had been their last class of the day. Naruto hums at the thought while walking down the hallway; her boyfriend's hand in her own. "I dunno. I definitely want to go to the festival sometime."

He gives it a thought. "Because you look so good in a Kimono?"

She gives a light blush at the compliment, she flicks his ear with her only free hand. "No, because you look good in a Yukata."

Naruto's giggles die down as Ino walks past with Chouji; she puts her head down and waits for the taller blonde to pass before resuming her conversation with Gaara. Gaara, however, looks very curious.

"That's right, you told me about what happened didn't you?"

"Yeah." She sighs. "It's okay though."

The redheaded boy puts a hand on top of his girlfriend's head and purposely messes up the hair she had managed to get into a ponytail by herself, she gives a playful glare. "What do you want to do this summer?"

"I'm just happy with you."

She grins and nearly tackles him; latching to his side like a parasite. "Aww Gaara you're so cute."

"Shut up."

The two continue to leave the school; there's a bit of weight lifted off Naruto's shoulders when she looks back, knowing that it won't be until vacation is over that she has to come back.

High school is hell, and summer is the stalemate.

Though if that's true, Gaara is heaven. Her heart beats steadily in her chest and her eyes stare up at him lovingly; she takes the time to wonder how she got so lucky, but there's probably not a single god out there who could answer her question.

She goes on her toes and kisses his cheek. "I love you."

His eyes soften. "I love you more."

"Do not!"

"Do too."

"Do not!"

"Do too."

"Do not!"

"Do too."

"Ooh...! Let's get ice cream!"

Thus summer vacation begins.

 **oOo**

Sometimes Gaara is reminded of a cat whenever he watches Naruto.

Maybe it's the way she liked to curl up in the sun whenever she came home, or even the way she liked to rub against him whenever they sat together. The evening sun shines on them as they sit together in front of the television; Naruto shamelessly rubs against his shoulder and makes a sound that reminds him of a purr.

She looks content, and happier than she's been in a long time. Gaara's happy too, of course. He reaches out for the remote in hopes of finding out the weather for tomorrow, just in case they decided to go out somewhere. Maybe the park, because Naruto loved to climb in the trees and swing on the abandoned swing set.

He did too of course, but he just wasn't as forward as she was.

The weather must be next, he thinks. The news reporter starts talking about a man released from prison, Gaara waits patiently for it to end. "A man by the name of Shimura Danzo who was arrested over twenty one years ago for stalking and assault, and then again ten years ago for assault, was recently released from prison."

There's a mug shot of the man on the screen; he's got a mean glare. His eyes are narrowed and his lips are curled into a small sneer. The other side of his face is wrapped in bandages.

Naruto has stopped moving completely; her eyes are wide and frozen as they stare at the screen glassily. Her lips are spread in a thin line, but Gaara doesn't notice.

"While the original sentence was eight years, he managed to be released two years early due to good behavior. Now, the-"

The television goes black before the woman can finish her sentence. Gaara looks down, confused, and finds Naruto holding the remote. She's standing with her back facing towards him; her shoulders are shaking, if only a little.

His eyes furrow. "Naruto, what's wrong?"

She shakes her head steadily, back and forth, back and forth. A look of absolute disbelief on her face. "Talk to me."

"I'm going to go to bed." She says blankly and moves to go to their bedroom, but Gaara's having none of it. He grabs her wrist and holds on tight, not caring the least about how much she wants to get away or how red of a mark he was leaving behind.

"You're not doing this." He narrows his eyes, but it's understandable why he's upset. "We're not doing this." He puts emphasis on 'We're.'

Naruto looks back to him with shaky, scared blue eyes. She looks apologetic.

"I'm sorry." She smacks herself in the head with her only free hand and then turns back to him, letting her boyfriend pull her into a much needed embrace. "I knew him."

"The guy on the news?"

She nods, a shaky sigh leaving her body. He pulls her into his lap and wraps his arms around her, providing both support and comfort. "Shimura Danzo was arrested for both stalking, home invasion, and the assault of Namikaze Kushina. He was sentenced to six years in jail by her husband, Namikaze Minato."

"That was twenty years ago?"

She gives a small 'Yes,' as affirmation. "They both conceived a child and then died in a car accident soon after."

Gaara puts the pieces together. "That child... Was you, wasn't it?"

Her eyes soften. "I was four yeas old when he was released from prison. Four and a half when the Uchiha's got tired of me and decided to stop foster care.

As if to collect herself, she pauses. She pauses and reminds herself that it's okay, Gaara's holding to her so it's okay. "It's okay."

"I got adopted six months later.' I didn't live with him long though, there was an incident."

Gaara's not too sure what to say. He kisses the back of her neck and it calms her down; the feeling of breath on her ear, and the sound of his heartbeat on her back. She relaxes. "He led me to his house that day and made me wait in the kitchen. He told me about how long he had been in jail, why he was doing what he was doing, all that bullshit."

Her eyes roll, almost as if she were annoyed with the memory. "Like a bad guy telling the good guy his master plan."

"Yeah." She cheers up a little at his joke. "He took a knife to my face and gave me six scars to represent the six years he suffered in prison."

He watches as her fingers run across the marks on her cheeks; suddenly, all the times she would just stand in front of the mirror and stare at her face made sense. The ways she would wake up screaming, the nightmares, the flashbacks, and all the fear she would express. He knew why now.

It's no wonder why she was so afraid of being touched.

Though, it made him happy to finally know about such a tragic event in Naruto's life, because now he would be able to support her next time she suffered from it. "I screamed really loud, yknow? The police came and arrested him after he was done with me, and they found me on the ground barely conscious."

"Naruto..." He breathes. "That's awful."

"I... I couldn't touch anyone after that without freaking out. I just always kinda thought that in some way, everyone wanted to hurt me. Sasuke, Fugaku, Mikoto, the kids from school, the adults, and even the caretakers at the orphanage. I was afraid of everyone...

She looks up at him apologetically. "I'm sorry for not telling you earlier."

"Don't apologize. I'm simply happy you've told me now." He puts his chin on her shoulder, nibbling at her ear ever so slightly. "Back then... When we met at preschool for the first time; I was so happy, that I was the only one who could touch you."

A blonde eyebrow raises to join her hairline. "Why's that?"

"Because it meant that no one could steal you away from me."

A smile graces her features and the whole room seems to light up as her mood changes once more; a playful spark reflects in her eyes as she shifts to lie on her stomach. "Or maybe I was just trying to steal you away from everyone else."

He smirks. "It worked."

Canines present themselves mischievously. "I know."

 **oOo**

Naruto's been clinging to him a lot more lately.

While Gaara doesn't really have any complaints, it doesn't mean that he's not worried about the girl. She is his girlfriend, after all. What kind of boyfriend would he be if he wasn't constantly worried about her?

There are some days where she's too afraid to even leave the apartment; she doesn't show it, but the look in her eyes sometimes indicates how scared she is. Her voice will heighten and the hairs on the back of her neck will stand tall; thus Gaara decides that it would be best if they stay in.

However today, they're eating at Naruto's favorite ramen shop. She's ordered two bowels of Miso Chashu Pork ramen with extra miso and fishcake on top; at the moment, she's happily slurping it up without a care in the world.

Gaara eats his at a much more leisurely place, all while Teuchi watches them with a smile. The wrinkles on his face only manage to give him an even friendlier expression. "I always know that my ramen is good whenever I watch Naruto eat it."

The man chuckles; Naruto looks up from her bowel with a confused expression on her face, ramen hanging out of her mouth messily. "You would really think that with such a cute boy with her, she would eat a lot more politely."

Ayame sighs; her chestnut eyes rest on the young couple with a bit of longing. "Gaua-" She swallows the food in her mouth hastily. "Gaara loves me! He doesn't care about that."

"No." Gaara denies, holding a hand up to add his own opinion. "I've just become so used to it that it's normal."

"Mann.." She drops her head onto the counter. "I want a boyfriend. When does my love life start?"

Teuchi's expression darkens. "Never."

When Naruto giggles she nearly chokes, but is saved when Gaara hits her back just hard enough for the half chewed food to go down. She coughs and takes the glass of water that had been put in front of her; it's gone in an instant, and so is the rest of her ramen.

Naruto leans back feeling satisfied and full. "I couldn't eat another bite!"

"Me either." Gaara puts his chopsticks neatly over his empty bowl and lets Teuchi and Ayame take them away, he prepares himself to pay for the bill too but it never comes.

Teuchi just smiles. "It's on the house today kids! Thanks for being such loyal customers!"

Blue eyes sparkle. "Thanks old man! Thanks Ayame!"

"Thank you." He puts his wallet back into the pocket of his black jeans, wraps an arm around Naruto just as he turns to leave.

"Get crazy this summer!" Ayame calls.

"But not too crazy...!" Teuchi finishes.

The two of them wave until they're out of sight.

 **oOo**

"Granny Chiyo left her door open again." Naruto points to the halfway open door, creaking as it's pushed back and forth by the blowing wind. A frown mars her face as she stares at it. "Do you want to see if she's home?"

Gaara nods. He knows how much that woman hates chasing out the wild animals that had wondered into her house as much as Naruto does, it would only be right for them to help her out.

Naruto knocks on the door and nearly releases Gaara's arm in the process, but a feeling of dread kicks into the pit of her stomach and makes her tighten her grip twice as hard. She purposely puts herself in front of him, as if to protect him from the shadows.

She flips the light switch on. There's a bit of dirt in the doorway. "Granny?" She calls out but the small apartment is so quiet that it nearly echoes; her gaze runs around the common area before they continue further on.

She's not in the bedroom and she's not most certainly not in the bathroom. Naruto's starting to think that the woman just left home and forgot to lock up afterwards, but then she finds the kitchen.

The smell of Granny's best chocolate chip cookies fill her nose, and the feeling of dread is covered with excitement. She lets go of Gaara and heads straight for the kitchen while he checks the balcony.

She turns on the lights, and quickly calls for her boyfriend.

Gaara's beside her in an instant, trying to figure out what's wrong and why she had yelled so loudly. Surly enough, there's Granny. She's has her head down on the table and she's not moving; it doesn't even look like she's breathing anymore.

"Gaara..." Naruto whispers, keeping her voice down as if to calm herself. "Is she dead?"

The red haired boy shakes his head and reaches for Naruto's hand; their fingers intertwine, and he rubs circles on the back of her hand. "She was old, Naruto. It looks like she went peacefully."

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING OLD!?" The woman sits up abruptly, moving much faster than a woman her age ever should. Looking at the horrified looks on their faces is enough to make her cackle, and cackle she does.

Naruto's reminded of a witch.

"THAT'S MEAN!" Naruto yells accusingly, pointing a finger at the old woman angrily. "I... I thought you were gone..."

The woman's eyebrows furrow. "Sorry baby, were you scared?"

"SHUT UP YOU OLD HAG!"

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING A HAG?"

"THE ONLY OLD HAG IN THE ROOM, WHO DO YOU THINK?"

"WELL WHO IS IT, CAUSE THERE'S NO WAY IT'S ME!"

"HAG! GRANNY! OLD LADY! GRANDMA! CRAZY OLD HAG!"

"YOU LITTLE BRAT!"

Gaara rolls his eyes as he watches the argument go about; Naruto's not as upset as she was before, the smaller teenager wipes the tears out of her eyes and continues to yell as if here was no tomorrow.

He sighs. Naruto sniffs the air. "Old lady, those cookies better be for us. Or else you really will die today."

"Don't threaten your elders."

Gaara and Naruto resemble two small children visiting Grandma's house, Granny Chiyo's reminded of a time when her grandson used to visit.

"Sasori," She whispers warmly, his name brings a sharp sting to her chest. "How would you have turned out, if you had someone like Naruto by your side?"

"Granny I want chocolate milk!"

She smiles.

 **『心配するのは大丈夫。** **\- It's Okay To Worry.』**


	7. 一緒に、二人で。

_Updated 04/11/17 09:10_

 **『一緒に、二人で。』**

In the Uchiha compound, it is forbidden to talk about what happened to Uzumaki Naruto during her stay. If they kept quiet about it then information couldn't get around, therefore their reputation couldn't be tarnished anymore.

Itachi had heard about it, they all heard about it. It had only been five months since they decided to stop being a foster family for Naruto, and she had already been adopted. Mikoto had been a little angry at first; the frown on her face looked almost permanent as she talked. "Maybe she'll call them 'Mommy and Daddy.' Sasuke had been happy. Fugaku couldn't care less.

Itachi felt as if he had been the only one to care. He was a bit worried for her; Naruto had this bad habit of attracting dangerous people, and her luck was running short.

Then, there was a day where she wasn't sitting by the river on his way home from school and Itachi just knew something was wrong.

He had dropped his bookbag and ran for his house; his mother had been cooking at the time, but young Itachi hadn't been hungry. He asked her again and again; "where's Naruto, what happened to Naruto?" She would just sigh and stop what she was doing, looking so serious that Itachi couldn't even reassure himself that everything was okay.

Mikoto had shifted her gaze down; there's guilt and self blame in her eyes, but running away from the subject would do nothing. "She's in the hospital, Itachi."

Maybe she had thought he was too young to handle it, but Mikoto never told him why. However, Itachi was very smart for a teenager. He learns about the death of Namikaze Minato and Kushina, Danzo's jail sentence, and that Uzumaki Naruto would most likely never return to the Uchiha household again.

Seeing Naruto in the hospital was hard.

They placed her in a medically induced coma, for reasons other than the stitches needed on her face. Though the first thing Itachi sees isn't the multitudes of bruises and cuts tarnishing her very pale skin, but instead he sees bandages.

Bandages, bandages, bandages, and more bandages.

Suddenly, the sunflowers in his hands and an apology didn't seem like enough anymore.

The nurse puts a hand on his shoulder, knowing all too well and yet nowhere near enough about what he was feeling right now. "It's awful, isn't it?" Wordlessly, he nods. There's already a vase by the bedside; it's something that the nurse bought out of her own pocket. It was sad enough that this girl didn't have a family to visit her, she wasn't planning on letting this girl wake up to an empty room.

Waking up in an empty hospital room was depressing. Even if it was just a couple flowers and a vase, it still made things ten times better. "Yeah." Itachi responds, late.

"Six scars." The nurse says suddenly. "Three on both of her cheeks. The cuts on he made on her face were very clean, and very deep. They probably would've healed with only a slight bit of scarring, had it not been for the additional burns he gave her."

Itachi's brow creases; he echoes her words hopelessly. "Her face?"

"You'll see when we take the bandages off." The nurse looks at the sleeping girl, how she wishes that this could've been prevented. No, it should've never happened in the first place. "I do believe that she's developed a phobia. We had to put her to sleep because every time we tried to help her, she'd panic and try to fight us."

"So you put her to sleep?"

"Yes. For fear of her damaging her self more than she already has." The woman shakes her head. "This child has a bumpy road in front of her, and I'm afraid that she'll be traveling alone from now on."

No, Itachi declines. She won't be alone. Even if she feels like she's alone sometimes, she'll never actually be alone. She'll make friends and overcome her struggles, and maybe one day she'll have a family of her own.

Most importantly, he'll be there when she needs him the most.

After all, just what else were big brothers good for?

Twenty three year old Itachi leaves sunflowers by Naruto's apartment door on her seventeenth birthday; the girl peaks out of her door with Gaara hovering behind her and simply says; "My favorite flowers are dandelions."

He shrugs his shoulders. "But you resemble a sunflower."

"She's definitely a weed."

Naruto reaches out and grabs him by his shirt, dragging him inside and giving him no time to get away. For the first time since the accident; she touches him, hugs him, and doesn't have a break down from it. The tiny touches and pokes on the forehead leading up until this point don't seem like such a big deal anymore; how would anyone be satisfied with that?

It was just better to go at Naruto's pace. She would heal at her own time and waiting was always better.

Today Naruto looks calm. Even a little happy, Itachi would say. Gaara's holding her hand for support; and though she pulls away all too quickly, Itachi is happy. "Thanks for everything, y'know?"

He flicks her forehead as if to say that there's nothing she should be thanking him for; she gives a big fat grin in reply, but then Gaara claps his hands together and presents the issue at hand.

"The ramen is getting cold."

Naruto's eyes widen. "Shit! C'mon Itachi, Gaara! Let's eat."

Her seventeenth birthday goes well celebrated.

 **oOo**

"She's all tuckered out."

Naruto's sleeping on the couch, sprawled out so much that her limbs are hanging over the edges and her head dangles over the armrest. It doesn't look comfortable; both Gaara and Itachi see this, but Gaara just watches while Itachi corrects her position with brief and little touches.

Gaara reaches over and puts a hand on her silky blonde hair, a warm smile on his face that he rarely shows anyone else. "Please explain to me, the current situation with Danzo Uchiha and whether or not it is something for us to worry about."

The comfy aura that had once surrounded them is gone, and Itachi doubts that it's coming back anytime soon. "It's taboo in the Uchiha compound. Danzo is not welcome and nor is any talk of him. They don't want to tarnish the Uchiha name any further by talking about it, as you know..."

"The things they talk about are not always the truth. Sometimes lies come out and those words become rumors and rumors spread obnoxiously fast, which only make more problems." Gaara finishes; it leaves tension in the air, it's hard to continue.

Itachi doesn't take long to reply. "As far as the higher ups care, it's all Naruto's fault. Their petty, cruel actions are one of many reasons I decided to leave."

"I reprimand you for that. However just because you are no longer a part of the Uchiha family, please do not think that you are without family." Turquoise eyes shift down to the sleeping blonde for a brief second. "This one very much considers you as such, and I... I do as well. You are a very important component to our makeshift family. Thank you."

Uchiha's aren't supposed to me emotional. Stoic, unchanging expressions are the most they share with outsiders. Yet Itachi feels his eyes sting and his hands twitch in the need to secretly wipe the tears forming in his eyes, long before they can fall.

He smiles and shakes his head; hiding his face as he speaks. "No, thank you."

Itachi is happy to learn that family is far much more than blood relations.

 **oOo**

Naruto's long eyelashes flutter as she wakes up.

Blue eyes look around the room to find nothing but her dead sleep boyfriend by her side, in the bed. When had she gone to bed? Last thing she remembers is lying on the couch, watching a really funny movie. Though she doesn't really remember what it's about.

She looks over towards the tuff of bright red hair and doesn't hesitate to play with it. The short locks twirl around her fingers easily; leaving tiny curls in his hair that defiantly don't look right. She grins a little and tries to imagine what it would look like if he grew out his hair a bit more, and then started to wear pigtails like she did sometimes.

It might be cute. In a funny way, of course.

Her pointer finger finds his neck; she runs her fingers around the natural curves of his throat. He's snoring a little bit so his neck vibrates; his lips are just slightly parted, and his chest makes an obvious movements as he breathes.

Her fingers trail down even further.

This time to his shoulders; she digs her fingers gently into the muscles, feeling happy when she feels him loosen up under her touch. She moves to his chest; pinching skin and leaving red marks here and there just for the fun of it.

Her lips form into a tiny 'o' as she expels small puffs of air, attempting to move the tiny red hairs on the back of Gaara's neck. Finally, her games come to a long awaited end when she's shoved out of bed without the slightest warning.

She hits the ground with a thud, but then bounces right back up. "What the hell!?" She yells and points an accusing finger to her half naked boyfriend. He has long since rolled onto his back and spread out to take up the entirety of their bed.

He's still pretending to be asleep. Naruto crosses her arms and puffs up her cheeks childishly; she jumps on top of the bed and straddles her boyfriend's waist easily. "I know you're awake, bastard." She reaches over and flicks his nose; but by the time she moves her hand to grab an ear, he's already grabbed onto her arm.

One turquoise eye stares at her, amused. Then it shuts as if it had never opened. His grip on her arm doesn't release. "Leggo!" She pulls away as best she can, using her other arm to grab a hold of his nose. He tilts his head back and licks her wrist, leaving a trail of saliva on her arm.

If that's not bad enough, he grabs her other arm and then tugs her down easily. In a mess of limbs and blankets, Naruto somehow ends up underneath them all. On top of her, Gaara confidently smirks.

She huffs. "That's unfair."

"You're unfair."

"No, I'm hungry."

"Nice to meet you hungry, I'm Gaara."

Naruto narrows her eyes. "You're annoying."

"No, I told you. I'm Gaara."

Her lips curve into a big smile and her eyes sparkle as she laughs; Gaara bends down and kisses her. He wonders how he got so lucky to be with such a beautiful woman, on both the inside and the outside.

Naruto thinks the same thing, but then her stomach rumbles and she starts to think about breakfast. Gaara looks at her knowingly and then picks up a small grey case that had been left on his side of the bed; he opens it up, and all of a sudden her tummy troubles are forgotten.

Gaara's face looks slightly red. "I was supposed to give this to you yesterday, but you fell asleep." It's a two piece locket in the shape of a heart; Naruto remember the picture like it was yesterday. It was about a day after they started dating, and the photobooth had seemed like the perfect thing to play with.

There's another picture somewhere in the apartment where both teens have their tongues sticking out and bunny ears on their heads; it's one of Naruto's favorites.

This one; the one inside the silver heart locket, might be another one of her favorites as well. Naruto is staring at the camera with the biggest smile on her face, and Gaara has a small smile of his own. Both of their eyes sparkle, and their faces are so close together that their cheeks are touching.

Their hands are up together, forming a heart and making the picture cheesier than ever. The locket separates into two so that both of them can have a piece of each other with them, no matter what happened.

Blue eyes meet blue-green ones. "I love it."

"I love you."

Breakfast is long forgotten.

 **oOo**

Naruto hides halfway behind her red haired boyfriend as the two of them stand in front of a house they've never been to before. It's still early, roughly three in the afternoon on a sunny day. There are billions of things that Naruto would rather be doing, but she's stuck.

Gaara's convinced that she needs to do this, but Naruto knows that it won't go well. What is she supposed to say? What happens if Ino doesn't forgive her? She shuffles awkwardly and keeps her head down; Gaara quickly picks up on her stress.

He puts a hand on her head, as to calm her down. "It's okay. Just say whatever you think is right."

"What if it's not good enough?'

The red head makes a face as if that's the weirdest thing that he's ever heard of. "It won't be. This is you we're talking about."

The door opens and a tall man who resembles Ino greatly stands at the door. "Can I help you two with anything?" He says kindly; there's a gentle tone to his voice that Ino doesn't quite have, maybe she gets her shrill voice from her mother.

Gaara looks down at Naruto, who shifts her weight up and down by going up on her toes and back. "Um, we're... Ino's friends."

His eyes widen in recognition, and just a little bit of shock. He was so used to seeing scantily clad teenagers, caked in so much makeup that it would take hours to get off. These two, however, looked normal.

They looked like Ino's first wholesome friends.

"Okay dad, you can go." Ino interrupts the exchange by coming down the steps and literally pushing her father into another room, just to keep him away. She's in her pajamas; Gaara and Naruto would be too, had this not been a task on their to-do list.

Gaara gives a tiny wave. "Hello, Ino."

"Hey Gaara." She smiles, but the pale blonde's face goes completely blank when she turns her gaze to Naruto. The blue eyed girl still won't make eye contact; Ino says her name coldly. "Naruto."

Naruto flinches. "Hey, Ino..."

"Did you want something?"

She looks down at her sandals and chews on her bottom lip, finding comfort in just busying herself rather than just staring Ino down. "I'm sorry."

"Huh?" Ino raises an eyebrow.

"I'm sorry!" Naruto repeats a lot louder this time; probably a lot louder than she needed it to be. "I was really upset... When Gaara left... I didn't mean to lock you out like that... I didn't mean it. If we could still be friends, I would like that."

Ino reaches out and smacks Naruto over the head very, very lightly. She earns a very small glare from her overprotective boyfriend, but she pays no heed to it. "Of course we can still be friends, and I forgive you. Just don't do that again okay? I was worried."

The two blonde's hug for the briefest of moments, but it's far more than enough to be meaningful. "She was worried that you wouldn't forgive her." Naruto blushes a bit from embarrassment, taking a moment to glare up at her boyfriend before turning her attention back to her friend.

"If she could forgive me for being so rude, and never making an attempt to befriend you, then I can forgive you for something that wasn't even completely your fault."

Gaara gives Naruto a look that says, 'I told you so,'

Everything's history from there.

 **『一緒に、二人で。** **\- Together, the two of us.』**


	8. 私たちの未来は明るく見えます

_Updated 11/04/17 15:56_

 **『私たちの未来は、明るく見えます。』**

"You look like you're planning something. I need you to stop."

Ino stands in front of Uchiha Sasuke's desk for an entirely different reason than she used to. She remembers when she used to worship this guy just like all the other girls did; they valued his good looks over his personality, and for that they never realized how ugly he truly was. It was awful how people could be this shallow.

Then again, you have guys like Gaara and girls like Naruto who look good on both the inside and the outside. Maybe being good at heart was a two way street.

The pale blonde liked to use a lot of words to describe him now. Manwhore. Fuckboy. Twofaced bastard. All of which are entirely true; especially when you consider all the girls that he's been with so far, and then the way he just throws them to the curb when he's done with them.

It's disgusting, and she sure as hell won't let him get to Naruto. No matter how impossible it was, especially with the bright eyed blonde's sexy lover by her side, Ino would make sure it never happened.

Because fuck him, that's why. Not literally of course. "My life is none of your business, Ino," His narrowed black eyes try to pierce holes through her body, but Ino remains unaffected. Her arms crossed over her chest and an angry glare on her normally calm face.

"Are you upset that you can't have her? She's too far out of your league, yknow." Ino smirks as the Uchiha nearly stumbles over his own words. Her statement had been offensive to him; because as far as he was concerned, no one was 'out of his league.' "It's the first girl you've had a crush on that's not a superficial bitch."

Her pale blue eyes pan over to a very heartbroken Sakura. "Hell, who haven't you dated?" The green eyed girl looks away, offended and embarrassed.

"It has nothing to do with you." His comebacks are bad; he continues to go back to the same childish response no matter where she sends the conversation.

She puts a hand on her hip and flips her hair over her shoulder, looking much stronger than she ever has before. "Bullshit. You getting involved with Naruto makes me involved, because Naruto, Gaara, and I are friends. I doubt that you'd understand though, it's not like you have any friends yourself."

Gaara puts a hand on her shoulder briefly, his arms cross in front of his chest intimidatingly. The glare on his face is enough to make Sasuke want to disappear in his seat; but when all eyes are on him, it means that he has a reputation to uphold. He's an Uchiha. "If you mess with Naruto or Ino, you've become my problem as well."

Naruto stands next to Gaara and pulls one of his arms down, holding onto his hand tightly. There's a confident grin on her face; she speaks very smoothly. "If you mess with Gaara or Ino, your my problem too! I don't like you at all, yknow? Just leave us alone."

Sasuke looks shocked; even as the trio disappears back to their respective seats, his expression doesn't change in the slightest.

Sakura looks over at them from her desk, and then her green eyes bore into the back of his head. Sasuke just sighs and puts his head down.

It seemed that Naruto was an impossible catch after all.

 **oOo**

"Yeah, that's good to hear. Yes, mother. I'm glad you've settled in. Yeah, okay. I'm sorry I left so early. Yes. She's doing fine."

Naruto rests her head on the palm of her hand; her arm is supported on the table, and her golden locks run free from her head. She slowly sips at her double chocolate milkshake; the whipped cream had been mixed into her drink, by personal habit.

She hums a bit in curiosity. Yeah, they were supposed to be on a date and Gaara was on his phone right now, but it was all for good reason. He was talking to his mother; there was no way she could be upset over that.

Nonetheless, he sends her an apologetic look and Naruto just shakes her head. She mouths the words 'It's fine,' and he gives her a tiny little smile of gratitude.

It's been twenty minutes; Gaara never spends this much time on the phone unless it's his mother. He doesn't even talk to his siblings that long; if he even bothers to call them. Usually it's just a short text message.

By the time he finally hangs up and puts his phone on the table, Naruto has already finished a hefty portion of their milkshake. She's halfway through it. He doesn't seem bothered. She doesn't seem to be bothered that he's talking to his mother, but he still feels the need to apologize. This is a date, after all. "I'm sorry about that."

Naruto waves her hand dismissively. "It's not a problem. It's your mom y'know? How's she doing?"

Gaara's eyes seem to soften; he looks at her with a light that's warm and grateful and loving. She cocks her head to the side and waits for his answer. "She's doing great. Mother is getting special treatment in Suna, and she's really happy to live with her brother again too. It's a lot less stressful."

"That's great. She's such a kind woman, she deserves the best." Her silky blonde hair falls over her shoulder as she moves to rest her cheek against her palm. An ethereal smile rests on her face and it makes Gaara's heart beat a bit faster. "What's it like?"

"What?" He raises a nonexistent eyebrow.

"Having a mother." She pauses a moment to shake her head, changing her mind on the subject long before he can answer her. "Never mind. Hey, you like mint right? Next time let's get the chocolate mint cake."

Gaara doesn't like how quickly she changed the subject; but he's a bit afraid to bring it up again. This kind of subject is delicate with Naruto; after all, she grew up without any parents. No mother, no father, no siblings, and no relatives whatsoever.

He reaches out and puts a hand on the side of her face; interlacing his fingers on top of hers. She gives a small sigh and meets his eyes. "It's warm. My mother... She's warm. She love my siblings and I unconditionally. She's told us many, many times that she'll do whatever it takes to make us happy. She'll do anything for us."

Naruto's smile stretches a bit further; her eyes look like diamonds. "Do you think that my mother would have been anything like that?"

Gaara returns her warmth easily. "Of course. If she was anything like you, then I'm sure she loved you more than the world itself."

The image of a red haired woman with an oval shaped face flashes through Naruto's thoughts; she's smiling, and patting her five year old daughter's head. She disappears just as fast as it had come to mind, but it's enough to warm her five times over.

"Thank you." She speaks sincerely, standing up and leaning across the small table to kiss her boyfriend on the cheek.

The flash of a camera stops them, their heads both turn to the window simultaneously but there's no one there.

The two share a look of confusion before Gaara stands as well, taking Naruto's hand and leaving the payment on the table.

"Let's go." He says sternly.

Naruto squeezes his hand and happily follows.

 **oOo**

The sound of a vibrating phone wakes Naruto up from a light sleep; Gaara is knocked out on her right side, his arm casually wrapped around her waist. Feeling a bit annoyed that she had been woken up, she reaches over and grabs the item off the small table.

Her eyes squint and she turns down the brightness; there are two missed calls from an unknown number, and finally two unread messages. They're from the same number. Naruto's face contorts in silent horror when the picture of the two of them on their date loads on the screen.

Just underneath the picture is another message.

Unknown Number: It seems foxy has grown up and got herself a boyfriend.

Unknown Number: It would be a shame if something happened to him.

Naruto takes a deep breath as she glances towards her sleeping boyfriend; he always looks so peaceful when he sleep. The blonde swallows thickly at the idea of anything bad happening to him.

It doesn't sit well with her.

Naruto: Who is this?

Unknown Number: Do you really need to ask?

Naruto: What do you want?

Unknown Number: You'll find out soon enough. Just keep an eye on your little boyfriend there, demon.

Naruto changes the password on her phone to something other than '4 3 2 1,' because Gaara's is '1 2 3 4.' She carefully throws the blankets off of her body and releases herself from Gaara's grip, then she proceeds to slide out of bed and tiptoe out of the room.

Gaara lets out a disappointed huff, but doesn't show any signs of waking up.

The door closes behind her and Naruto goes to make a cup of tea to calm her heightened nerves.

Did the universe dislike the idea of her being happy?

 **oOo**

For about a week now, Naruto's behavior has been getting stranger and stranger. She wakes up in the middle of the night, every night, and never wakes Gaara up for comfort. She zones out in the middle of a conversation, and recently she always seems to be checking her surroundings.

Making sure the doors locked once, twice, three times. Windows are always shut, the bedroom door is locked and there's two locks on the bedroom window. She always checks around the corners and makes sure they don't walk down any alleyways, she doesn't even want to go outside anymore.

Straight to school, and then right back home. No detours.

Gaara's more than just a bit worried.

"Do you think it will pass?" He asks hopefully, Itachi sits across the room and sips at the cup of coffee he had been offered. "I'm not sure what to do."

The raven haired man seems just as troubled as Gaara; if the red head wasn't sure what to do, then he was stumped as well. "You've tried to talk to her?"

"Of course. She just says that she's been having nightmares. Her nightmares have never made her this paranoid before." He runs a hand through silky red locks and relaxes further into his seat; his blue-green eyes briefly pan over towards the kitchen where Naruto diligently works on her homework while waiting for dinner to cook.

Itachi shakes his head. "There's not really anything I can do. I'm afraid that I don't know her as well as you do." He pauses. "If it's you, then she'll tell you eventually. Please be patient until then."

The red head sighs. "I know. I don't enjoy not being trusted. If she doesn't tell me what's bothering her, then it gets to me too. She changed her password on her phone, we used to just..." Another sigh.

This time, Gaara presses his temples as if to calm himself down. It doesn't work as well as he had hoped.

"Tachi!" Naruto calls, clearing the tension with a lighter mood. "Staying for dinner?"

The raven haired man shakes his head, putting his hands on his knees before standing up. "Thank you for the offer, but I should be heading off. Perhaps I'll stay next time."

Naruto pokes her head from out of the kitchen; there's something red on her cheek and cookie crumbs on her chin. "Are you sure? We're having spaghetti!"

"Next time." He reaches out and flicks her forehead; clearly pleased when she doesn't inch back in utter horror just as she does with nearly everyone else. Having a loved one around made her phobia a lot easier to deal with.

She pouts. "We'll make lasagna next time and dango for desert, so make sure you bring that girlfriend of yours. And be careful going home!"

"Bye, Naruto." He turns to Gaara to give him a friendly hug; the teenager was nearly the exact same height as him. It wouldn't be long before the boy was taller than him. "Good luck." He says soft enough to pass by Naruto's ears.

Gaara gives him a grateful look, and then he's gone. Gone just as quickly as he came.

He looks towards the kitchen. Naruto's looking at her phone again. The look on her face isn't happy.

Gaara sighs, knowing there's nothing he can do right now.

 **oOo**

Naruto checks the door for the forth time before sitting down on the couch next to Gaara; he reaches out to her and easily pulls him into his embrace. She finds comfort against his firm chest, and doesn't mind intertwining their legs into a mess of limbs and cold toes.

She gives a smile as he wraps his arms around her, the television remote in his hand as he presses play. It's her favorite type of movie; stupid, with a lot of cliches. She lets out a small huff, Gaara feels her relax in his arms.

"What do you want to do in the future?"

The blonde raises a confused eyebrow; for a moment she wonders what made Gaara ask such a random question. Really, she couldn't think of an answer that fast either. Pink lips purse in thought; blue eyes wander up to the ceiling, and a soft hum escapes her mouth.

She shrugs her shoulders. "I don't know. I haven't thought about it too much. I'm super duper happy now, yknow?"

"Don't you want anything in the future? Dreams and things like that. What did you want to be when you grew up?"

Naruto's nose shrivels up. "I don't think so. I'd much rather think about what's going on right now, compared to what's going to happen in the future. I told you, I'm happy. As for dreams..." She pauses to intertwine her fingers with his, the thoughts of a ring and a white dress in mind as she holds onto his hand. "That's a secret."

Gaara hums in interest.

"What about you?"

The red head kisses the back of his girlfriend's head; he thinks of a ring, and a baby with red hair and bright blue eyes. "That's a secret too." He pauses, because her head snaps towards the window again and she looks worried and scared and then relieved because there's nothing there.

He raises a nonexistent eyebrow. "Are you worried about something? For someone who doesn't want to think about the future, you sure worry about it a lot."

The blonde doesn't reply; the movie ends in silence and unanswered questions.

Gaara goes to bed first; Naruto doesn't follow.

Something's very wrong.

 **oOo**

When Gaara wakes up, it's scary. Naruto's not there and she's not in bed and she's definitely not in the bathroom because the lights are all off and the shower isn't running, she's not there.

There's a brief moment of panic that makes adrenaline run through Gaara's veins; out of fear, he calls out to her. "Are you playing hide and go seek again? It's too early for that!" There's no reply. He runs a hand through his red locks and quickly walks out of the room.

She's not in the kitchen; but there's a half empty cup of honey lavender tea on the table, where she normally sits. She only drinks that when she's stressing about something, and of course this makes him worry even more.

Her shoes are still by the door, so she should still be in the house. The television is on in the living room; the volume is muted and there's an abandoned blanket on the floor. He frowns and leans down to look at the space in between the couch and the wall; surly enough, his blonde is half asleep against the wall.

He crouches down; his heart isn't racing anymore and he's calmed down a lot. He reaches out and gently nudges her; her blue eyes flutter open in an almost panicked state. "Calm down, it's me."

She nods. "Good morning."

"Good morning." He echoes, leaning against the wall and sliding down into a more comfortable position. "You scared me. You weren't in bed when I woke up."

Her eyebrows arch apologetically. "Sorry. That wasn't my intention."

"Did you have a nightmare?"

She shrugs and looks down. "Can we skip school today?"

Gaara doesn't ask questions when he knows he won't get anything from it. "Yeah."

 **oOo**

"Did you ever think about covering your whisker marks up with make-up? You'd probably look a lot better." The pink haired girl who usually fawns over Sasuke gives her two cents; she leans heavily on the desk as she stares at the blonde beside her.

Naruto doesn't seem pleased with her input; the girl shoots the other an offended look narrows her bright blue eyes. "I like my scars." She replies, absentmindedly running a finger down the marks as she talks.

Gaara puts an arm around her shoulders, supporting her before her confidence escapes her. "They define her."

"They're cute!" Ino supports. "But then again, you only understand 'slutty.'"

Sakura's mouth hangs open, and all three friends feel a sense of accomplishment as the pink haired girl is rendered unable to reply.

Ino and Naruto share laughter, while Gaara gives a cool smirk that clearly states he's proud of her. The blonde haired girl has a soft look on her face; she looks grateful. "Thank you." She says honestly; her voice nothing but a whisper, but it brings small smiles to both of their faces.

Ino has to dismiss herself from their group far sooner than what they would have preferred; but that's okay, it's nice when it's just the two of them too.

Gaara's long since filled himself up, but Naruto is still playing with her barely touched portion. She gives a small huff; her cheeks puff up as she does so. She looks a little down, and a little ready to talk; Gaara just waits.

Finally, she looks up at him. "If I was having problems, would you trust me to fix them by myself?"

It's sudden, so Gaara's surprised. His eyes widen a bit and his ears perk; but he tries not to look to eager. He takes a deep breath, holds it (1, 2, 3...), and then releases it slowly. "Yes, of course. I'll always trust you, but I would feel a lot better if you came to me with your problems as well. It's easier to solve a problem with two heads instead of one."

"Hm." She looks down at her phone, scrolls through the messages, and then frowns.

He taps his fingers on the desk. "Do you trust me?"

Her eyelashes flutter, she's clearly taken aback by the question. "Of course!" She breathes. "I trust you more than I trust anyone in the world... It's just..." She pauses and avoids his eyes. "If something bad happened to you because of me... I wouldn't forgive myself."

"What would happen?"

She shakes her head and puts her head in her hand. "I don't know."

Talking to her isn't reassuring.

 **oOo**

"You've all grown up."

"You look so much like your mother now."

"Those marks look gorgeous on your face."

"Why don't you let me cut you up some more?"

"You're mine, Kushina."

Naruto scrolls through the messages on her phone with a sense of disgust in the pit of her stomach. She drops the offensive object onto the table and refuse to look at it again; even as it vibrates, indicating more messages from the unknown sender.

Her eyes flicker towards the bedroom door; she stands and leaves the phone on the table. It's not hard for her to peak into the room and then silently make her entrance, she could be very sneaky if she wanted to be.

The door closes behind her and she allows herself a second to adjust to the darkness. Finally, she looks to Gaara. He's sleeping just as he always does when he's alone; curled up, with a look on his face that says something's missing. Someone's missing.

He's asleep though, Naruto's sure of that. She kneels down on the floor by his side of the bed, taking one of his limp hands and lightly touching his palm. "I'm having some problems."

She whispers so quietly that even she has trouble hearing herself talk. "I'm really scared, and I really want to talk to you. But if you get hurt..."

She shakes her head; the subject is easy to change when you're the only person talking. She discovers this very quickly. "My dreams for the future..." She hums, purses her lips. "I don't care so much for a wedding or a formal ceremony or dresses or anything like that, but I wanna get married. Naruto Sabaku or Gaara Uzumaki, those are pretty cool names right?"

Once again, there's no response from Gaara. His chest rises and falls; sometimes his eyes twitch, but that's nothing. "I don't know if I'd be a good mom, but it'd be nice to have kids too. I want to live somewhere else too, somewhere close to your family."

Naruto smiles a bit, but her eyes look distant. "Itachi should be close by too. With that girlfriend he talks so much about; he's part of the family. Of course, we'd still talk to Ino."

There's a stupidly bright smile on her face as she goes on. "Even if our future doesn't turn out that great, it's ours. I'll protect it with everything I've got! No matter what!" Her grip on his hand tightens. "I promise! I never go back on my word!"

Turquoise eyes continue to stare at the wall on the other side of the room, his back still faces the blonde haired girl who decided to have a full blown conversation with herself at three in the morning.

Naruto finally comes into bed; the blankets shift as she moves, and before long she curls up against his back. His body immediately relaxes, leaving her plenty of space to cuddle up alongside him.

"Good night," She says.

Gaara finds it much, much easier to sleep with this very special person beside him.

Of course, she doesn't need to know that he was ever awake in the first place.

 **『私たちの未来は** **, 明るく見えます。』** **\- Our future, looks bright.**


	9. 眠れません

**ねむれません**

Things have cooled down a bit.

Naruto seems a lot calmer than normal. She's stopped getting messages at odd times from someone on her phone and while Gaara still wants to know who it was; he doesn't pry. Nowadays he's not too sure how to react to these kinds of situations; he had been diagnosed with separation anxiety, after all. What if nothing was wrong and he was just making it all up?

Just last week his mother had called and told her that she would be paying for his new therapy sessions, and that if he refused to go then she would no longer help pay for their apartment. It was a low move but Gaara understands. The least he could do was give her some sort of peace of mind.

Naruto understood too, but she wasn't quite happy the recent changes his therapist had suggested. At first she had been all for it; going with him to therapy and sometimes sharing a conversation with the therapist himself. Things were just fine and dandy until the therapist started to suggest she walk with him to therapy, and then head home by herself.

Gaara hadn't been happy with that either. There were a number of possibilities and situations that could've awaited his girlfriend as she walked home by herself; someone could hurt her or touch her or kidnap her, or worse! The first day she leaves without him; he can't focus. The therapist takes away his phone, his only and last method of contacting her in case of something awful happening.

He writes something down in his little notebook and puts down the pen. "How long have the two of you been together?"

He blinks, unready for such a question in a time of panic. "Ten years."

"What about since you started dating?"

"Two and a half."

"You two are awfully young to have such a serious relationship, but I believe that is an amazing thing. Do the two of you have any plans for the future? Outside of your relationship, of course."

Of course. This is their last year of high school after all; they've been planning to go to the same college for years and while college was expensive, scholarships helped a lot. Gaara would get academic scholarships for the highest grades, and Naruto will get one for her performance on the track and field team.

After that... What did he want to do with his life and what did she want to do with hers? "College. We're going to the same college after high school."

"What about after college?"

He looks down just long enough for his therapist to understand that he doesn't want to discuss that right now; thankfully, he moves on. "The two of you are very attached. I believe this is the first time out of the last six days that I've sat in this room with you, without her. How are you feeling?"

"Anxious."

"Of course. You became very distressed when Miss Uzumaki left to go home; it's just one of the many things paired with separation anxiety itself. Why don't you tell me what else is going through your head right now?"

The tall, redheaded teen shifts awkwardly on the couch. The pit of unease in his stomach hasn't subsided in the least bit but he does his best to ignore it; Naruto had promised him that everything would be fine. That she'd be there when he got home this evening, and that he had nothing to worry about. He wants to believe her. "I'm worried. Anything could've happened to her..."

He's cut off.

"Always thinking about the worst case scenario, correct? I'm sure that you can't stop worrying about her either." He looks to Gaara; who shifts uncomfortably under his calculating gaze. The man jots something else down in his notebook with a slight hum. "If you don't mind me asking, how did this start? Go as far back as possible, please."

"Mother almost died when I was born and father hated me for that. He... He tried to hurt me once but mother saved me and took me away; we moved to Konoha when I was four. I started school at five."

The quick frown that presents itself on Gaara's face is something the therapist takes note of; if anything, he was determined to get answers. "Did you not enjoy school?"

"The other children refused to play with me because I was an outsider. Red hair isn't the most normal appearance in Konoha; they ignored me and ran every time I made an attempt to befriend them." He pauses, looking down at his hands. "I got very upset with them one time and I hurt three of them. They started calling me a demon after that."

"Is that before you met Naruto?"

"Yes. I met her in first grade. The other kids started teasing her and calling her names for the marks on her face; she never really got upset about it though, not in the way I did. She was crying under a tree during recess and I... I had to talk to her but I wasn't sure what to say or do so I... I touched her shoulder."

"How did she react?"

"She told me..." His eyes soften and his shoulders visibly relax as the voice of a six year old Naruto echoes through his head; it was such a simple sentence but it was something that would stay with him forever. "She said; 'You look kind.' We've been together ever since."

The man grunts in affirmation, putting his small notebook off to the side and crossing his legs. "I'm sure both of you understand that your relationship is anything but normal. The two of you are far too dependent on each other; while that can be good sometimes, it can also become a disability for the both of you."

Gaara feels a bit annoyed; but for both his mother's sake and Naruto's, he cooperates. "Then what do you suggest, we do?"

"It can be fixed, but we have to start small. Today was the first step; it's small, but it's a start. Perhaps tomorrow you could go to school at different times, eat breakfast at separate times, or sleep in different beds. I do suggest that Miss Uzumaki join the track and field team now, otherwise it may be harder for her to get a scholarship later in the year."

Just the idea of walking to school apart from each other was something that didn't sit well with Gaara, but this was all to fix their relationship. He didn't want to become a crutch that Naruto would have to drag along for the rest of her life; he'd push through and heal, all while she did the same. "Okay."

"Making new friends separately should work wonders as well. Please try it."

When Gaara gets home and finds Naruto in the kitchen; perfectly okay and cooking dinner for them both, he understands things a bit better.

oOo

Things are a bit strange with the number one couple today.

The two of them didn't even walk to school together this morning and while that was strange; it was even weirder when they moved seats, ignored each other during class, and avoided each other during lunch. Everyone notices but no one is close enough to the shining couple to ask why things had changed; except for Ino, of course.

She shifts awkwardly in her seat as she watches Naruto push her food around with her chopsticks; her eyes are glazed over and slightly out of focus. Just what could she be thinking about? "Are you guys, um, fighting?" She whispers the last part. Any louder and rumors would spread across school like a wildfire. If the two of them really were fighting, than that would only make things worse.

"Naruto?" She prompts again, attempting to get her friend's attention.

"Huh? Oh, no. We're not fighting." She shakes her head and abandons her chopsticks on the desk; her food is barely touched, save for a few grains of rice here and there. Her bright blue eyes shift across the room and land on a red headed boy; he's sitting alone at the moment, munching on his own lunch in silence. He doesn't seem bothered. "We're just spending some time... apart."

There's an awkward silence that follows. "Oh," She responds.

Really that sounds like a fight to Ino, but she doesn't dive too far into it for fear of Naruto getting annoyed with her. She changes the subject. "You did really well on the track team earlier. I didn't expect you to join a club."

"Thanks. I really love running." She hums, a look of glee in her eyes that wasn't there before. "Since it's my last year here I just kind of figured I should of something. How long have you been on the track team?"

Ino's face contorts slightly as she thinks; pale blue eyes stare up at the ceiling as she tries to come up with an answer. Naruto waits patiently. "Since my first year of middle school. It's how Sakura and I met."

"Sakura used to be on the track team?"

She nods, not in the least bit surprised by Naruto's reaction. "Yeah, we were best friends back then. Neither of us were very good at the time but it was fun." Naruto looks as if she wants to ask another question but Ino stops her first; practically reading her mind as she continues. "We were best friends during all of middle school but she changed, well I think we both did."

"Why?"

Ino gestures towards the Uchiha sitting across the room; he's not too far away from Gaara, but every now and then his eyes shift towards the redhead. For good reason, of course. "Him. He was a pretty boy and we were fresh out of an all girls middle school. Obviously we fell in love in first sight so we changed ourselves for him. We wanted him to like us."

Naruto lowers her voice slightly. "He's an asshole, though."

"I know! We were just too focused on the way he looked but I snapped out of it when I realized how ugly he was on the inside. In a way I guess I matured, and Sakura still has to do that. Maybe we can be friends again, after that." She sighs heavily; shoulders dropping as she pushes her food aside as well. "But she has to change first."

"Is change a good thing?"

Ino shrugs. "Sometimes. I think that it can be good and bad. If I was still the same person that I was from middle school then I'd be like Sakura over there; obsessed with an asshole because of his pretty face. If she doesn't change then one day she'll end up marrying someone just like that and her life will be miserable. Instead I matured and realized that there's a lot more to a person than just a pretty face. I would've never became friends with you and Gaara if I hadn't."

"How is it bad?"

"Sakura and I were best friends. She changed into a person who is more obsessed with having a hot boyfriend, than someone who she can rely on. It changed our relationship and now we don't have one anymore."

The bell rings. Ino retreats back to her desk and the next lesson begins.

Naruto has other things to think about right now.

oOo

Dinner is awkward.

There's a lot to talk about but neither one of them know how to bring it up. They're so used to spending their days together that now talking about being separate was something foreign to them; their days were completely different, but both of them keep quiet anyway. Dinner is the one meal that they promised to always share together; while it normally takes half an hour or so to eat and joke around, things are different today.

Naruto chugs her water down and finishes within half the normal time, standing from the table abruptly and leaving her empty dish in the sink. "I'll clean the table later," She says, partially reminding him that he had dish duty this week. She starts to exit the room but his voice just barely manages to stop her.

"How was your day?"

She shrugs, leaning on the wall a bit. "Fine. How was yours?"

He stares at the ice in his water. "Fine."

Really both of them have a lot of conversation options today. Gaara's therapy classes have been going well and he's been making a lot of progress; at school he's already made a new friend who sits next to him in class. A shy girl named Hinata. They ate lunch together and a boy named Kiba joined them. He was excited to tell Naruto when he got home but now, now it just felt weird.

"Okay." She responds and exits the room a bit quicker than what she normally would have. If they had talked a bit longer and broken the ice that somehow built between them; she could have brought up her conversation with Ino earlier today, or maybe how much she was enjoying the track team. Instead she leaves and cleans up; getting ready for bed while Gaara washes the dishes.

They bump into each other in the hallway. "I'm going to sleep on the couch today."

She raises an eyebrow. Since when has he ever slept on the couch? His sleeping problems were bad enough when he was in bed but now he wanted to move onto the couch? Was it her? Did she do or say something that made him not want to sleep with her anymore? She stiffens. "Why?"

"My therapist," He begins and Naruto calms down a bit. She almost wants to smack herself in the head because it should've been obvious that this was his idea, everything that was going wrong in their relationship was his idea. Eating separate meals, walking alone to school, making new friends, and now sleeping separately? "Said it would be a good idea."

Naruto tries to be accepting. "Okay. I'll sleep on the couch then, I like it better anyway."

It's a lie but he nods, disappearing into the bedroom to collect a pillow and a couple blankets they had folded up in the closest in case they ran out. She leaves to clean up the kitchen; a strange pit of unease resting in her stomach as she wipes down the table. The doorbell rings. "I got it." She calls, but Gaara quickly joins her at the door anyway.

He still doesn't like the idea of her answering the door alone. Anything could happen and if something does, he'd be upset with himself for not preventing it. They swing the door open but there's no one there; instead a small package of bright red hair dye. Gaara looks to his girlfriend with a raised eyebrow.

She's a few shades paler but it might just be his imagination. "Oh, it's h-here!" She stutters and bends down to pick it up; moving past him as she re-enters the house. "I bought this as a joke for Granny Chiyo!"

"Oh." It would seem that not even the oldest of people had a chance of escaping Naruto's pranks; but Chiyo is smart, she often figures things out on her own anyway. Gaara closes the door and heads upstairs again, while Naruto shoves the case underneath the couch when he's not looking.

Later on that night Gaara would waste time staring up at the ceiling from his (their) bed, and Naruto would curl up on the couch watching whatever was on tv.

Neither of them get any sleep that night.

 **『ねむれません。I can't sleep.』**

* * *

 **4LonelySouls, BlueRosette23, Not Stale Bread, PinkiePieParty122894, MeekaStoickZ, CrazyLook, Kreceir, penpeny**

 **Special thanks to CrazyLook. :)**

 **~Berries**


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